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Sean Strickland was in attendance for UFC 296, the promotion's final card of the year, hosted last weekend in Las Vegas.
The middleweight champion was sat next to featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski and his Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach, Craig Jones, who has now shed light on Strickland's cage-side antics.
According to Jones, 'Tarzan' began yelling instructions at David Goggins, who was in Tony Ferguson's corner for his fight against Paddy Pimblett on the UFC 296 main card. The fight was fairly competitive on the feet, but 'El Cucuy' found himself being dominated from bottom position by Pimblett on the ground for the majority of the fight.
Craig Jones further said that Goggins began listening to Sean Strickland and began relaying those messages to Tony Ferguson mid-fight. During a recent episode of the El Segundo Podcast, Jones said this:
"During this fight, Strickland literally goes live on Instagram and he's filming the fight and he's yelling out, 'Jiu-jitsu doesn't work!' and he's yelling at David Goggins, he's like, 'Goggins, tell [Ferguson] to stand up! Tell him to stand the f**k up!' And eventually, Goggins start repeating what Strickland is saying to him. Literally starts listening to Strickland halfway through [the fight]."
Watch the video below from 5:33:
Footage of David Goggins in Tony Ferguson's corner appears to confirm what Craig Jones said about Sean Strickland's involvement in the fight.
Watch the footage below:
Dricus du Plessis shares advice with Sean Strickland following their UFC 296 brawl
Sean Strickland is set to defend the middleweight title against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 297 in January 2024. Ahead of their clash, the promotion held a seasonal press conference last weekend with the headlining fights of UFC 297, UFC 298, and UFC 299 all present.
The middleweight pair shared some heated words with each other, and the South African's reference to the trauma 'Tarzan' suffered growing up angered him more than many had seen in the past.
The following day, at UFC 296, Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis were sat two rows of chairs away from one another, with both men in attendance for the pay-per-view card.
Given the existing tension, little was needed for a brawl to ignite cage-side, which is exactly what happened. The South African challenger was interviewed by ESPN MMA following the incident and said the following:
"He needs to get calm in his head. He needs to regain his composure. I know I'm not the champ yet, so I shouldn't really give the champ advice. But that would be my advice... you make mistakes when you're not calm."
Watch the video below from 0:40:
