UFC 296: Middleweight champ Sean Strickland rains blows on Dricus Du Plessis in crowd, weeks before title fight

Fans waiting to watch Sean Strickland face challenger Dricus du Plessis got some action a month earlier than expected at UFC 296 on Saturday in Las Vegas.

The UFC middleweight champ attacked his future opponent in the crowd at T-Mobile Arena, vaulting over a row of seats to jump on the South African and level him with blows from above. Du Plessis did not appear to fight back, instead shielding his head as people in the crowd tried to break up the scrap.

Strickland and Du Plessis had been shown on the UFC broadcast moments earlier to advertise their scheduled fight at UFC 297 on Jan. 20, with Strickland turning around to playfully fire a finger gun at his opponent.

It is unclear what happened after that, but he appeared to ask the people in the row between him and Du Plessis to get out of the way before making his move.

The two fighters continued to spar on social media, with Strickland pointing to Du Plessis mocking his domestic abuse as a child during their news conference a day earlier.

Du Plessis responded by mocking Strickland's punching power.

Strickland is coming off the biggest win of his career, a stunning unanimous decision win over Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 to capture the UFC middleweight title. The 32-year-old entered the fight as a +650 underdog, but was clearly the better fighter against a champion who had defeated six other challengers.

It has been an eventful few months for Strickland, as he also released a video last month showing him holding a man at gunpoint for allegedly "drunk stomping out a girl."

Du Plessis has been one of the UFC's biggest rising stars over the past few years, winning all six of his fights with the promotion since 2020. His most recent win was over former middleweight champ Robert Whittaker in a title eliminator to set up his date with Strickland.