Ex-UFC Double Champ Rips "Crybaby" Sean Strickland for Dricus Du Plessis Brawl

Strickland's actions at UFC 296 have attracted a wide variety of reactions from fans and fighters.

The viral brawl between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis has been a major talking point following UFC 296, and one former two-division champion believes the altercation didn't reflect well on the current UFC middleweight titleholder.

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The final UFC event of the year featured some wild prelim action before a stacked main card that included two title bouts. It’s common for fighters to attend high-profile events as spectators, but at UFC 296 things got out of hand when Strickland and Du Plessis were seated in the same section and eventually came to blows.

UFC CEO Dana White was quick to take responsibility for seating the two middleweights too close to each other immediately after UFC 296, and now Henry Cejudo has shared his reaction to the brawl and what he feels it tells him about Strickland.

Strickland and Du Plessis are scheduled to fight for the UFC middleweight title in January / (Zuffa LLC)

“[Strickland] likes to talk about other people, he likes to talk about other people’s wives,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “But when somebody brings up something about his past and with his dad, all of a sudden he’s crying. So as cool as Sean Strickland could be – and the funny thing that he could be, he’s also somewhat of a crybaby.”

One of the most outspoken members of the UFC roster, Strickland regularly makes headlines for his unfiltered statements and has recently taken heat for his comments about unbeaten welterweight contender Ian Machado Garry's marriage.  

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The UFC middleweight champion has also been open about the abuse he dealt with growing up and reacted strongly to comments made by Du Plessis at a press conference during UFC 296 fight week, but Cejudo isn’t impressed by the apparent double-standard he feels Strickland has established when it comes to trash talk with other fighters. 

Du Plessis will be the first fighter to challenge for Strickland's middleweight belt.  :: (Jasmin Frank/USA TODAY Sports)

“I was a fan, but the fact now that he’s really bringing it to the fists - like fighting outside of an actual Octagon - lets me know that the dude is just frickin’ emotional… And now when they say something about you when you were a kid, and all this other sh*t. And now you get pi**ed off and you’re the first one throwing blows, you know what that is? That’s a bi**h move.”

After closing out last year with back-to-back losses, Strickland’s incredible 2023 saw the 32-year-old defeat Nassourdine Imavov and Abus Magomedov before he claimed the middleweight title from Israel Adesanya in a massive upset at UFC 293.

Many fans had been clamoring for a matchup between Du Plessis and Adesanya following their own altercation at UFC 290, but the recent brawl with Strickland should help to build fan anticipation for the South African's first shot at UFC gold when the pair headline UFC 297 on January 20.

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