Sean Strickland and his team have shared footage showing how the former middleweight champion reacted in the locker room following his loss at UFC 297.
A member of the UFC roster since 2014, Strickland capped off a three-fight win streak and scored the biggest win of his career when he upset Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 to claim the promotion’s middleweight belt.
The 32-year-old’s title reign ended up being short-lived after he suffered a split-decision loss to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297, and a video Strickland recently shared on his YouTube channel includes footage of both the lead-up to that matchup and his reaction immediately following the fight (skip to 12:15).
Strickland was understandably disappointed by the result, and once he got back to the locker room it was a member of his team that mentioned a head butt appeared to have opened a fight-altering cut over his eye early in the fourth round.
The former middleweight titleholder already took to Instagram and shared a video of his eye injury as well as the moment the alleged head butt occurred, but Du Plessis was quick to respond to the post and dismiss any suggestion that the cut helped him win the fight.
“Stillknocks” was the second new champion crowned at UFC 297 after Raquel Pennington won the vacant women’s bantamweight title in the co-main event, and Du Plessis has already indicated he’d like to settle the bad blood between himself and Israel Adesanya for his first title defense.
More must-reads: