Robert Whittaker thinks the scuffle between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis was STAGED.
The UFC middleweight champion is getting ready to fight Du Plessis at UFC 297, ahead of which the tension between them has escalated, reaching a boiling point. During UFC 296, they had a heated exchange outside the cage when the South African taunted the American. The situation got physical, with the American asking Gilbert Burns’ family, who was sitting nearby, to move before confronting his rival.
Whittaker believes the brawl may have been planned to promote their UFC 297 middleweight title fight.
“I thought it was staged, mate, honestly,” Whittaker said during a recent appearance on MMArcade. “Because it was weird. It was weird the way it happened. You saw the way Strickland was like, ‘Move aside, please.’ Makes sense, but then he jumps in like WWE style. The way he was punching, the way he was kind of like, I don’t know, fake punching to the back of Dricus. Maybe it was just for entertainment, and which case, you can’t really give him anything for it. I don’t know. It’s a bit silly. He’s the champ. It was a weird little scuffle, I am gonna say.”
After a loss to Du Plessis at UFC 290, Whittaker is aiming for a comeback with a potential match against Paulo Costa at UFC 299. The Australian fighter is eager for the showdown, but there’s no word from the Brazilian’s camp at the moment.
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