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Jared Cannonier sees why Sean Strickland didn’t throw caution to the wind at UFC 312 – how can you, when you’re facing Dricus du Plessis?
The UFC middleweight champion picked up a thing or two from his first fight with Strickland at UFC 297, grazing by on a split decision before absolutely dominating the American in their rematch last weekend. Du Plessis shut down Strickland’s volume, bullying the bully as the much more active striker.
Never a stranger to criticism, the outspoken Strickland took a lot of heat for the performance, notably saying he’d fight ‘To the death’ after turning in probably the most ‘uninspiring‘ 25 minutes of his life.
10 minutes left on the table…
Who’s leaving #UFC312 with the belt?? pic.twitter.com/mJEp605XTt
— UFC (@ufc) February 9, 2025
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The last man to defeat Strickland prior to du Plessis was Jared Cannonier, the Top-10 middleweight contender outpointing Strickland to a split decision victory months after Strickland’s KO loss to Alex Pereira in 2022.
Cannonier has weighed-in on Strickland’s performance and the ‘to the death’ comments his former foe made before UFC 312.
“‘To the death’ does sound good, but Sean’s not gonna finna walk into no damn wood chipper either,” Cannonier said of du Plessis vs. Strickland on MMA Today. “What do we expect out [of Strickland]? He’s going up against a guy who can throw hard… You’ve seen the shots that he was throwing… Shots you can feel the intent, the energy behind it. You can hear the shots landing, even though Sean was protecting himself from a lot of them, you can still see the danger in it.”
Middleweight champ du Plessis is as dangerous as they come, owner of 20 stoppages across 25 pro fights. Du Plessis finished former champs Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya, the durable Strickland managing to make it the distance both times against du Plessis, suffering a broken nose in Round 4 of the rematch.
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By this point, Cannonier has heard enough of the Strickland critics.
“So everybody’s mad at him because they wanna see him walk in and [brawl], ‘either kill or be killed’…But f*** y’all, y’all ain’t paying us to do that s***,” Cannonier continued. “You’re not paying us to go in there and try to hit ’em as hard as you can and much as you can. And if you get hit, then that’s even better for us because they’re gonna capitalize off of that. Are you gonna capitalize off of that? No.”
“So y’all can kiss my a**. All those who have that sort of sentiment towards us fighters cause if y’all don’t like it, get your a**es up, get to work and I’ll meet you in the Octagon.
“Everybody is mad at him because they want to see him walk in and either kill or be killed…but umm, F*ck y’all.”
Jared Cannonier has a message for those criticizing Sean Strickland for his performance at #UFC312
Source: MMA Today w/@DinThomas & @AlanJouban pic.twitter.com/uUo4f6NIhJ
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) February 12, 2025
“We’ll see how easy it is for you guys to run yourselves into a wood chipper to the death,” Cannonier said of fighting someone like du Plessis.
February has been a monumental month for the middleweight division, the momentum rolling on as Jared Cannonier fends off Brazilian “RoboCop” Gregory Rodrigues in the main event of UFC Vegas 102 this Saturday.
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Tha Killa Gorilla has absolutely devastating KO power 👊
Jared Cannonier is back in the Octagon this Saturday at #UFCVegas102! pic.twitter.com/ZFjJOWRt5W
— UFC (@ufc) February 10, 2025
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