Chris Curtis expects another wild fight from Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312.
Strickland (29-6 MMA, 16-6 UFC) rematches middleweight champion Du Plessis (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) in the Feb. 8 headliner at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. The main card streams on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN2 and ESPN+.
Their first fight at UFC 297 ended in a split decision, where Du Plessis got the nod over Strickland to claim the 185-pound belt. Du Plessis lost his lone-career rematch against Roberto Soldic, where after finishing him by TKO to win the KSW welterweight title, he lost their second fight by knockout.
“Fighting Dricus is like fighting a coked-out chimpanzee in a phone booth,” Curtis told MMA Junkie. “You’re just like, what’s happening? But I think it’s really overwhelming and surprising for guys because you’re like, who fights like this? What are you doing? And the dude is just out of his mind, trying to win.
“I respect that, but I feel like stylistically, in the second fight, when you kind of know what to expect and you understand that he’s dancing to his own song, I wonder how that goes, because his only rematch with Soldic, he lost. Yeah, that’s years ago, but I kind of think it’s kind of telling to where once guys figure that out, you learn what to look for. I think it becomes a different fight.”
Curtis understands that the same applies to Strickland, where Du Plessis could pick up on his tendencies.
“It’s just going to be such a weird fight,” Curtis said. “It’s going to be coked-out chimpanzees in a phone booth, and I want to see it. I believe in Sean, he’s one of the hardest-working dudes I’ve ever met. I think he can do it, I’m pulling for him, but at the end of the day, I just kind of want to see this happen because honestly, it’s the most high-level circus fight you’ll ever see.”
Curtis and Strickland recently patched things up after the two friends fell out over a social media spat. All is good right now, but Curtis, who meets Roman Kopylov on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 249 card at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas (ESPN+), admitted he wouldn’t be surprised if it happened again.
“I’ve never left the gym, me and Sean fight a lot,” Curtis said. “When you’ve known somebody for that long, you’re going to have some friction. Especially when you know somebody that long, you know how to get under each other’s skin. We’ve had words, we’ve had fistfights on multiple occasions.
“It’s always going to be that way. We’re very different personalities, we’re very different beliefs and boundaries. We’ve both crossed those boundaries a lot more than most people. So, it’s going to happen. It’s just a part of the game.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 312.
