UFC welterweight contender Gilbert Burns scored a prime spot for Sean Strickland vs. Dricus du Plessis.
Looking back to UFC 296, ‘Tarzan’ and ‘Stillknocks’ famously got into a brawl. The pre-fight press conference set the stage for the explosive altercation, and Dana White acknowledged the error in sitting the middleweights so close in the post-fight press conference.
Of all the fighters in attendance, Gilbert Burns had the closest view of the incident. Fans might have noticed that the Brazilian’s wife and kids were caught up in the melee, as they were just a few steps away from Sean Strickland’s fight with Dricus du Plessis. Before the fight even started, the middleweight champion had politely asked them to move.
On the JAXXON Podcast, Gilbert Burns jumped into the controversy. In his discussion with Rampage Jackson, the welterweight shared his perspective on the fight. He pointed out that in the end, there were no winners, but he did acknowledge that Sean Strickland did give the family a heads up before the fight, which was appreciated. He also mentioned that ‘Tarzan’ had hinted at the possibility of trouble earlier in the night.
Still, the clash involving Dricus du Plessis could have taken a much more dangerous turn. According to Gilbert Burns, during the scuffle, their legs became entangled in the ringside seats. Fortunately, no serious injuries occurred.
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(via Zuffa LLC)
Gilbert Burns gives his side of Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis’ fight
“He walk in, he already had the thing in his head.” Gilbert Burns stated, recalling his side of the UFC 296 brawl involving Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis. “He said ‘Your family is here, if I do something, I’ll give you the heads up’. I said okay, I thought he was joking. When the thing started going down, he looked at me and said ‘Now’. He asked my son and my wife to move, so I just got in front of them.”
He continued “He went out like crazy. The thing people didn’t see is when you don’t sit, the seat goes up. He pushed the seat down, but when he stepped, he stepped too much forward, and the seat kind of fell through. That’s why they started scrambling and grappling a little bit. Then, the guy kind of took him down, but [Sean’s] leg was kind of locked in the chair. I was so scared with his chair, I was hurrying to get his foot out of the thing. But yeah, that was my family right there.”
“…They hit each other a little bit, but people didn’t see that side of the camera.” Gilbert Burns concluded. “It was nothing too clean, even when Strickland got up. The guy was kind of holding him, it was nothing clean… It was kind of like a little rush,