Things got heated inside the octagon on Saturday night in Las Vegas, and apparently outside of it as well.
At UFC 296 at T-Mobile Arena, there was a fracas between fighters Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis, who were not even competing for real, as the two came to blows.
In videos from inside the venue, Strickland, 32, is seen standing up and sharing words with Du Plessis, 29, from their respective seats before Strickland appears to ask people behind him to move out of the way.
After they seemed to oblige, Strickland leapt over at least one row of chairs before he started hammering with his right hand to Du Plessis’ head, getting in a number of shots before the fight was eventually broken up, with UFC CEO Dana White in the middle of stopping things, per MMA Mania.
According to ESPN broadcaster Jon Anik, Strickland was removed from the arena following the brawl.
After the altercation, Strickland took to X.
“I go hard on everyone I know this, izzy mouth feeding his dog, Dricus kissing his coach and grabbing his cup,” he wrote on social media, seemingly also calling out fighter Israel Adesanya. “[Sean O’Malley] talking about sharing his wife in a podcast. You’re a man, on a world stage doing this in public.”
The fiery incident came on the heels of a contentious press conference on Friday that was promoting UFC 297 in Toronto, which will pit Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) and Du Plessis (20-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC).
During the heated event, the two had to be separated by White.
During the presser, Strickland also took some shots at Colby Covington, who was fighting Leon Edwards in Vegas as part of UFC 296’s main event.
“Colby is an utter piece of s–t,” Strickland said. “If you know Colby on a personal level, he f–ked over everybody he f–king knows.”
UFC 297 should be a fascinating event, to say the least.
