![](\"http:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sean-strickland-felt-pressure-from-ufc-to-accept-du-plessis-rematch-while-injured.jpg\")
<\/center>\n<\/div>\n<\/center><\/p>\n
Sean
\nStrickland came up short for a second time against Dricus Du
\nPlessis at UFC 312 | Getty\/UFC<\/b><\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\n
Sean After losing a contentious split-decision to Du Plessis in their Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019m an idiot, you guys. I deserve this,\u201d Strickland said. \u201cBefore \u201cSo taking this time off, letting my body heal has been amazing. Strickland will return to action for the first time since February \u201cThe good thing about \u2018Fluffy,\u2019 the guy\u2019s on, like, a 50-fight Sean Strickland came up short for a second time against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312 | Getty\/UFC Sean Strickland says that he was less than 100% for his middleweight title rematch with Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312. After losing a contentious split-decision to Du Plessis in their first meeting at UFC 297, Strickland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nStrickland<\/a> says that he was less than 100% for his middleweight
\ntitle rematch with Dricus Du
\nPlessis<\/a> at UFC
\n312<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nfirst meeting at UFC 297, Strickland lost a more convincing
\nunanimous verdict to the South African standout in his most recent
\nouting last February. During an appearance on the “Kairouz Bros” podcast<\/a>, he revealed that he felt
\npressured to accept the fight despite a lingering injury suffered
\noutside the cage.<\/p>\n
\nthe Dricus fight, I was f\u2014king riding with [motocross athlete]\nAxell Hodges and I broke my shoulder,\u201d Strickland said. \u201cSo I was
\nin Colombia getting stem cells on my shoulder and they hit me up
\nfor the fight. The thing with the UFC, you don\u2019t say no. They are
\npimps. You don\u2019t say no to the masters. So I was kind of backed up
\ninto a corner taking that fight.<\/p>\n
\nThis shoulder feels f\u2014king great. I do miss fighting and I miss
\nperforming, but it\u2019s been nice to be a fat, lazy, piece of s\u2014t for
\na while.\u201d<\/p>\nFacing \u2018The American Chimaev\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n2025 when he meets the streaking Alexander
\nHernandez<\/a> in the
\nUFC Houston<\/a> headliner on Feb. 21. \u201cFluffy\u201d has won eight
\nstraight promotional appearances and could be on the verge of a
\nmiddleweight title shot. That\u2019s the kind of opponent Strickland
\nwants to face.<\/p>\n
\nwinning streak,\u201d Strickland said. \u201cYou\u2019re next in line. He\u2019s like
\nthe American Chimaev. That\u2019s the fight. That\u2019s the next title
\nfight.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"