Dricus Du Plessis reveals conversation with Dana White about pressing charges against Sean Strickland for UFC 296 assault: “No, no, no, no, no. Please no.”

Dricus Du Plessis has revealed the conversation he had with Dana White about pressing charges against Sean Strickland for his assault at UFC 296.

The altercation occurred a month ago when Strickland and Du Plessis were seated in the same section and eventually came to blows at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Dricus Du Plessis, in conversation with ‘MMA Junkie‘ spoke of how Dana White apologized and was concerned for the 29-year-old:

“I know Dana came to me and said, ‘Listen, this is the case. We’re really sorry about this. Obviously, the police had him and charges can be pressed because that’s assault. It’s outside of a professional arena. They didn’t try to convince me otherwise at all. They literally said, ‘If you feel like that was uncalled for, we completely understand if you want to press charges and take this further.’ I said, ‘No, no, no, no, no. Please no.’ We are two fighters. It was a good old scrap like we did before we became professionals. I just paused and was like, ‘I would even take the blame if that’s possible, just to make sure that nothing happens to him.’”

Continuing ‘Stillknocks’ shared:

“We know to come to Canada, they are very strict. They are very, very strict in getting into the country. I just wanted to make sure that if the fight wasn’t in jeopardy. I never even think of Sean Strickland trying to get away. He’s the type of guy who’s always game. He’s a guy who will go out on his shield and do it with honor.”

“I took on his manliness. I was in his face. I told him, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ He stood up for himself. That’s what a real man does. I’m happy for him. I’m glad he has that in him. No matter what the situation, what the repercussions, he didn’t think about it. He said, ‘I’m standing up for myself,’ and rightfully so. That’s where the respect comes from because that’s exactly what I would’ve done.”

Concluding, Du Plessis advised his main focus is now on UFC 297:

“I hope it’s over now, but there’s not going to be one-ups. There are no one-ups. What’s going to happen, is going to happen. We’ll see how it plays out, but right now my focus is on the fight. I’m not here to be funny. I’m not here to try and create something that there’s not. I’m here to be the next champion of the world. That’s why I’m here. I’m not going to be here to try to one-up or get even further. I’m going to do what I’m going to do and he’s going to do what he’s going to do. But right now, it’s almost senseless to try to create more hype.”

“The hype has been created. That took care of itself. Right now, for me, this is business. The whole fight week is business. Everything I handle, I’ll handle it like business. Saturday night, I’ll be signing on the dotted line, closing the deal.”

UFC 297 takes place on Saturday, January 20th at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Strickland (28-5 MMA) will be defending his middleweight title for the first time when he gets in the Octagon with Du Plessis (20-2 MMA).

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