Gilbert Burns: Strickland Hinted He Might Attack Du Plessis Before UFC 296 Brawl

The full incident between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis at #UFC296 tonight.

Bring on #UFC297 in January! pic.twitter.com/HQt0Uj1jiv

— UFC (@ufc) December 17, 2023

Gilbert Burns recently shared some insider information about the cagedside brawl between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 296.

Strickland will defend his middleweight strap against Du Plessis at UFC 297 on Jan. 20 in Toronto. The bad blood started during a seasonal press conference to promote their fight, where Du Plessis brought up Strickland’s abusive childhood. The two were seated close to each other while in attendance at UFC 296 the next day, which also led to speculation about the brawl being staged.

However, Burns, who along with his family had a first row seat to the whole episode, claims the scuffle was real. Before leaping over chairs to attack Du Plessis, Strickland could be seen asking Burns’ wife and child to move. “Durinho” claims he received intimation of the impending brawl even before that from Strickland, who had already told him something might go down.

“That was my wife and kid,” Burns said on the Jaxxon podcast. “And then when Sean came, he came and then he kind of looked at the guy. I think he’s already like ‘Man s—t.’ You brought your wife and your kids, and I say yes. And he said, ‘Yeah this fricking guy is right there. I might do stuff with this guy.’

“That was before the fight! When he walked in, he already had the thing in his head. [Strickland said] If I do something, I’ll give you the heads up. Whenever the things start going down, this guy [Strickland] kind of look at me and said, ‘Now!’”

Burns further revealed that while Strickland can be seen throwing multiple shots in the video, no one connected flush with anything.

“They hit each other a little bit,” Burns said. “People didn’t see that side of the camera. We saw because it was right there. There was kind of a little bit back-and-forth, but it was nothing clean. And then Dana [White] came after the fight, like what happened, did anyone get hurt, anyone need anything? No, nothing happened to anyone.”