As the blood sprayed out of Sean Strickland’s nose and all over his chest and the fight surface, UFC CEO Dana White realized something from cageside.

Strickland (29-7 MMA, 16-7 UFC) lost the UFC 312 main event to Dricus Du Plessis (23-2 MMA, 9-0 UFC), who largely dominated him. However, White glowed about Strickland’s composure during a post-fight news conference.

“Sean is usually really good at shutting people down, like Izzy (Adesanya), White told reporters. “When he fought Izzy, Izzy felt like it looked like he couldn’t get in a rhythm and he was in his face pressuring him the whole time. It feels like that’s what Dricus did. I’ll tell you something fascinating that I noticed tonight for the first time. I don’t know why. We’ll see if you notice this. So, Sean Strickland, the way he acts leading up to fights, right? Normally, when you have people who act the way that he acts, you see signs of it in a fight. Who is more focused, professional, and solid in a fight than he is? When he gets hurt, there’s no sticking out the tongue, or ‘No, no, that didn’t hurt me.’ The guy stays focused, keeps coming forward. There’s never any hint of how he acts outside the octagon when he’s in there. Absolute professional the whole time. It’s actually fascinating. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that with a guy who acts the way he does leading up to fights.”

The loss Saturday was a lopsided unanimous decision in Du Plessis’ favor. Strickland battled through a severely busted nose for much of the fight, but did not quit. White praised his toughness and focus.

“I’ve never seen a guy so solid and professional,” White said. “He gets his nose broken, snaps it back into place, and keeps fighting. He gets hit with some nasty shots. When he gets hit with big shots, he doesn’t start shaking his head and start doing the goofy things that people like that do (like) Mayorga. You can go into any combat sport and you’ve seen it. Nobody is more professional during the fight than this guy is. It’s fascinating.”

Strickland, 33, has gone 1-2 since he won the UFC middleweight title in September 2023. Both of the losses in that stretch have come in title fights vs. Du Plessis.

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