Sean Strickland knows it will be declared as excuses, but he just wants to explain what happened prior to UFC 312 . The first signs Strickland (29-7 MMA, 16-7 UFC) might not be in peak condition for this past Saturday’s middleweight title rematch with Dricus Du Plessis (23-2 MMA, 9-0 UFC), which he lost by unanimous decision , came up during fight week when images of staph infection on his arm were discovered. Strickland downplayed it as an issue when asked at the pre-fight press conference, but it has since been revealed that he had a case of the virus several weeks prior to UFC 312. That was just one of the problems he had to navigate throughout training camp, because Strickland said he also experienced an arm injury that he described as a break. “This is not an excuse, but that entire camp was a struggle of, ‘I’m good,’ (but) knowing you’re not good,” Strickland said in a video on his social media .
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