Dricus Du Plessis believes Sean Strickland has the "antidote" to Nassourdine Imavov's style of fighting

Dricus Du Plessis has a guess about how the Strickland vs. Imavov rematch is going to play out.

Dricus Du Plessis believes Sean Strickland is going to “go walk forward” in his possible rematch

The rematch possibility between the two middleweight fighters has been a topic of discussion for a long time. Additionally, Imavov has taken to X to offer Strickland $500,000 to face him in the octagon.

While this much-awaited rematch is not yet confirmed, the rivalry grows stronger. DDP, however, has an idea about what the results might look like.

“I honestly believe we're going to look at the same result as the first fight”, He stated during his appearance on the "Fight Forecast" podcast.

Strickland stepped up to the light heavyweight division to fight Imavov in January 2023. The victory by unanimous decision was sweet to the former, of course. Nearly four years later, the two rivals might meet again in the middleweight title-defence bout.

Du Plessis believes that Imavov has certainly sharpened his skill set since then. Especially his ability to defend takedowns has improved considerably. However, he still doubts if it will be of any use against Strickland.

“Imavov has this style of kind of hitting and running, hitting and running,” he explained.

“Imavov's style is very similar to Adesanya's style. And Strickland has proven that he has the antidote to that style by pressuring".

He mentioned further that “Tarzan” prioritises his defence extraordinarily.

“Even when he goes forward, he doesn’t get clipped with those shots, because he keeps it safe,"  he said. The former middleweight champion then went on to discuss Strickland’s style in the cage.

Dricus Du Plessis praised Sean Strickland’s wrestling

Stillknocks reflected on the evolution of Strickland as a fighter. According to him, the American hasn’t changed much.

“He has always been a great wrestler.” Du Plessis has secured around seven takedowns across two wins against Strickland. But that only made the South African have more admiration towards him. He accepted that it was indeed very difficult to hold the latter down.

“He is very fit, he can always go five rounds, and he’s so good at dragging people into his style.”

He also spoke about how Strickland’s wrestling shaped his fight with Khamzat Chimaev in UFC 328.

“Khamzat couldn’t enforce his style, he had that first round. He got very tired because he worked very hard”, he added. “Strickland is very good on the ground, especially defensively.”

“When he started stopping Khamzat’s takedowns, Khamzat got tired, and he got forced to fight Strickland’s fight — and Strickland wins that every single time.”

Recently, Chimaev has offered Strickland money to face him. Ever since the first loss of his career, The Borz has been looking forward to a rematch. He posted on X offering the middleweight champion $1 million.

“Send me location and let’s fight don’t care outside inside the cage”

Striciland I will pay you 1 🍋 Send me location and let’s fight don’t care outside inside the cage 🦾

— Khamzat Chimaev (@KChimaev) October 5, 2026