SUMMARY
- Sean Strickland claimed he was headbutted by Dricus du Plessis in the fourth round at UFC 297.
- UFC Bantamweight fighter Henry Cejudo felt otherwise.
UFC Bantamweight fighter Henry Cejudo has had his say on Sean Strickland receiving a “headbutt” from Dricus du Plessis. Strickland was defending his UFC Middleweight title at UFC 297 in Canada. Du Plessis defeated Strickland to win the title via split decision. Post-fight, Strickland made claims of being headbutted by Du Plessis which cut open a wound around his eyes rendering him unable to see.
Since Strickland’s claims, many around the MMA world have had a closer look at the sequence. Cejudo did the same on his YouTube channel. In his fight rewatch and breakdown, he took a closer look at the alleged headbutt. According to Cejudo, Strickland’s claims are false. The bantamweight fighter believes it was not a headbutt.
Cejudo pointed out that Strickland was already bleeding before the ‘headbutt‘ sequence. He said, “If this is a headbutt then I don’t know what to tell you… If you call this a headbutt then f*ck I’d be headbutting everybody that’s not it.”
Further, Cejudo claimed that the contact was not enough. “It was unintentional but it wasn’t enough to say ‘Hey he headbutted me.'”
In the conclusion of the video, Cejudo claimed that it was a close fight and it could have gone either way. According to him, du Plessis’s split decision win was the correct decision.
Sean Strickland accused Dricus du Plessis of headbutting him during their UFC 297 title bout
Strickland’s headbutt claims were not a one-time affair. He talked about it multiple times on social media. Firstly, soon after the fight, The American wrote on X, “Well f*** haha… man that headbutt really made it difficult to see but I thought we got the job done. Blood and all!!! Onto the next one!!! Thanks everyone who supported me!!!!!!”
The former UFC Middleweight champion later took to Instagram to shed light on the alleged headbutt. He had the cut around his eye stitched. Sean Strickland attached a close-up image of his stitched eye and along with that posted footage of Du Plessis‘ head appearing to hit his face.
View this post on Instagram
He captioned the post, “I didn’t take the cowards way out and tell the doctor I couldn’t see and got a no contest. The only reason why you took a round from me is because I couldn’t see.. I won that fight, the world knows I won that fight……. The belt they gave you will never make you a champion, enjoy….
“They had to stitch through muscle to get it closed.
“Thank you to everyone your support has really kept my head up high through all this, grateful forever.”
The blood dripping from his face did cause him some issues during the fight. Strickland was consistently wiping blood off his face to better his visibility.
Dricus du Plessis refuses claims of headbutting Strickland
During the UFC 297 post-fight press conference, Du Plessis was informed about about Strickland’s headbutt comments. The South African claimed this was the first time he had heard about it. “It’s the first time I’m hearing of it. No, I didn’t feel a headbutt during the fight […] No, I can’t remember any headbutt.”
Further, on Strickland’s Instagram post, Du Plessis commented, “Why don’t you cry about it…AGAIN.”
He seemingly referenced Strickland breaking down on Theo Von’s podcast. The fighters created a huge buzz through verbal and physical altercations before the fight. However, it was Du Plessis who got the job done inside the Octagon to earn the UFC Middleweight title.