UFC 297: Michael Bisping predicts Sean Strickland to 'see red' in 'personal' fight against Dricus Du Plessis

British MMA great Michael Bisping has said he expects Sean Strickland to "see red" when he steps into the octagon to fight Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297 in Canada on Saturday night.

Strickland will defend his middleweight belt for the first time against the South African.

The fight will be the main event at Scotiabank Arena, live on TNT Sports.

Speaking on the UFC Preview Show, Bisping said he is looking forward to the fight with both men enjoying incredible success in 2023.

"What a way to start off the new year," he said. "UFC 297, this main event is just spectacular. Sean Strickland, the middleweight champion of the world, the man that went out there and shocked the entire planet when he beat Israel Adesanya...

"He's not shy of being controversial, doesn't mince his words and going up against Dricus Du Plessis, a man that is just phenomenal.

"This man is so violent, so strong, action-packed, six wins in the UFC, five stoppages and I think he's only got one or two decisions on his entire record. This man is a finishing machine.

"This main event going down in Toronto is going to be spectacular. The Canadian fans, they're some of the best on the planet. They love mixed martial arts this crowd and this atmosphere is going to be special."

Both fighters stole the headlines at UFC 296 when Strickland attacked Du Plessis in the middle of the crowd at the Las Vegas event.

The melee started when Strickland, standing two rows in front of Du Plessis, came on camera and turned to fire an "air gun" towards his rival.

The South African then appeared to say something before Strickland asked a child sitting between them to move and threw himself across seats to start throwing punches at his UFC rival before the pair were pulled apart.

Bisping believes that the clash in Las Vegas will play a part in how Strickland approaches the fight but warned him that Du Plessis won't back down from that challenge.

"It's nasty. We don't want to see that kind of stuff but let's be honest, that's going to sell pay-per-views because everybody wants to see this fight because now, not only is it two brilliant fighters but it's also very, very personal," Bisping added.

"Remember Dricus Du Plessis? Bit of a low blow making of fun of the childhood trauma that Sean Strickland endured but Sean Strickland, he's talking about everybody so what's good for the goose is good for the gander. But words aside, the fight will be spectacular.

"Dricus Du Plessis is rightly the No. 1 contender. The way that he dropped Robert Whittaker, the way he was just willing to stand and go toe to toe and that's what he does. Dricus brings such a physical-ness to every single fight. He's big, strong and swings with knockout intentions with every single shot.

"That jab that he dropped Whittaker with was beautiful and the combination that followed was amazing. On top of that, he's very strong, got great grappling and if he gets taken down he can get back to his feet. But in this fight, I don't think we're going to see much of that.

"Sean Strickland is the champion of the world, he beat Israel Adesanya who is known as being one of the most sophisticated strikers that we have in mixed martial arts and he beat him at his own game over five rounds. The fight before that, he went out there and stopped [Abus] Magomedov. Now Sean believes in his power. He knows he can drop people, he knows he can stand and go toe to toe with people like Israel.

"Before that, he used to have a very jab heavy style and as the fight progressed into the later rounds then he would start to turn up the volume. But when you start dropping people, you believe in the power that you have but that's going to be dangerous against Dricus Du Plessis who hits harder.

"Dricus Du Plessis has more firepower in the fists. When it comes to grappling, I don't even think that's going to matter. Dricus can take him down if he wants to, Sean is very accomplished on the ground. I believe these two men are going to meet in the centre of the octagon, they're going to throw down, it's very, very personal.

"Sean spoke about it on a podcast with Theo Von about how angry he was [so] he's going to see red. When the referee says fight, he's going to go right at him and Dricus Du Plessis has no problem with that whatsoever because that's the type of fight he shows up for every single time."

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