Strickland denies he has staph infection ahead of UFC 312 rematch vs. Du Plessis

Dricus Du Plessis made an interesting observation about his rival, Sean Strickland, mere days ahead of their UFC 312 main event rematch.

The defending UFC middleweight champion posted a split image to social media of Strickland’s official UFC 312 fight week photo beside one from a year ago before their UFC 297 clash with the caption: “What? He grew taller and added staph infection to his arsenal. Oh s--t.”

While Strickland appearing taller in the new photo is irrelevant, the remark about a staph infection is something to note.

A mark that certainly resembles staph is clearly visible on Strickland’s left arm in the photo. The 33-year-old from California wore a sleeveless shirt to Thursday’s pre-fight press conference in Australia, and you could see the mark there too.

Strickland was asked point blank by a reporter if he had a staph infection and if he was healthy coming into his rematch with Du Plessis.

“Listen (expletives), I’m immune to staph,” Strickland said. “Calm the (expletive) down. I don’t get sick, I don’t get (expletive) injured, I don’t get (expletive) staph. So, relax. I’m going to be out there (at UFC 312), and I’m going to come out (expletive) hard and strong. The hardest and strongest you’ve ever (expletive) seen. To the (expletive) death, Dutch man.”

Strickland repeatedly referred to his South African opponent as “the Dutch man” and went on numerous politics-related rants during Thursday’s press conference, just like he did in Toronto last January as the pair prepared for their first meeting.

Strickland usually has plenty of fan support before, during and after his fights, but the local media in Australia hasn’t loved everything the one-time 185-pound champ has said this week.

Du Plessis got his hand raised and took the middleweight belt from Strickland at UFC 297 in what ended up being one of the closest five-round matchups of 2024. Strickland had won the title four months prior when he upset Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena, the same venue at which Saturday’s event takes place.

Strickland landed more total and significant strikes than Du Plessis in the first fight, which earned each competitor a Fight of the Night bonus, and he expects another hard-fought 25-minute contest.

“The man has a cinderblock forehead,” Strickland said of Du Plessis. “The guy can take damage. We’re probably going to have a five-round war. I’m gonna try to put his ass down. He’s gonna try to put my ass down. One of us is gonna get (expletive) up and it ain’t going to be me.”

Both middleweights will need to clock in at no heavier than 185 pounds when they step on the scale at the official weigh-in late Thursday night (Friday afternoon local time) and both will need to receive medical clearance in order for their title fight to be made official.

MMAFighting’s Damon Martin reported late last month that UFC 312, which features a strawweight title fight between Weili Zhang and Tatiana Suarez in the co-main event, was not expected to have any official backup fighters for either championship matchup.

Occasionally, the UFC will enlist an athlete to serve as an official backup fighter. The athlete is brought to town during fight week and weighs in alongside competitors on the eve of the event just in case one of the title competitors withdraws at the eleventh hour and a replacement is needed.

A recent example of this was at UFC 309 in November when interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall served as the official backup fighter in case anything went wrong with Jon Jones or Stipe Miocic ahead of their main event matchup.

Strickland rebounded from his loss to Du Plessis with a five-round win over Paulo Costa at UFC 302 in June, while the current champ who's 8-0 in the UFC defended his title by submitting Adesanya at UFC 305 in August.