When Gilbert Burns' son got caught in the middle of a violent brawl between Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis
At UFC 296, which went down at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Dec. 16, 2023, Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis got into a physical altercation. Both men were seated in the crowd, and Gilbert Burns' son happened to be amongst them when the brawl erupted.
At the UFC 297 promotional press conference earlier that month, then-UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland jibed at then-challenger Dricus du Plessis for kissing his male coach. The South African hit back by referencing Strickland's self-admittedly abusive relationship with his father. The American responded by threatening to kill du Plessis.
Days later, Strickland and du Plessis were seated just two rows apart from each other at the T-Mobile Arena for UFC 296. The cameras panned to them, and they exchanged some words.
UFC welterweight Gilbert Burns and his family members, including his wife and one of their sons (Joshua), were seated in the row behind Strickland. 'Tarzan' requested them to move aside. Before they'd completely stepped away, he launched himself on du Plessis and the two started brawling. Security personnel swiftly broke the brawl up. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Watch the brawl below:
In an interview with Megan Olivi, Strickland later clarified that he asked Burns' family members to step aside, as he didn't want to inadvertently hurt the child. He said:
"Well, yeah, that's inappropriate. If I want to kill a man, I don't want to hurt a child."
Check out Sean Strickland's comments below: (17:47):
Ultimately, the two men ended up fighting, and du Plessis defeated Strickland via split decision to become the new UFC middleweight champion at UFC 297 in January 2024.
Sean Strickland-Dricus du Plessis brawl: Bruna and Gilbert Burns address UFC 296 incident
Gilbert Burns' wife, Bruna Burns, later spoke to MMA Fighting and explained that Gilbert pulled their second son, Joshua Burns, away and told her that Strickland and du Plessis were about to fight. She noted that while the younger Joshua was scared by the melee, their eldest son Pedro Brenaiah Burns was watching from the front row.
Bruna recounted that ex-UFC light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill pulled her away from the brawl. She tweeted that she's not a fan of Strickland's trash talk, but emphasized that du Plessis called him out to fight right there. In a tweet, she wrote:
"I don't like @SStricklandMMA trash talks but DDP call him to fight right there. Sean polite asked us to move before he jumped."
On Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson's JAXXON podcast in Dec. 2023, Gilbert Burns claimed to have seen Strickland react disapprovingly to being seated near du Plessis.
Burns believes the seeds for the attack were planted when Strickland entered the arena and saw du Plessis. Burns recalled that Strickland told him he could attack 'Stillknocks' and would give him a heads up to get his family out of the way. Burns, who returns to the octagon soon, asserted:
"And then he said, 'But your family is here. If I do something, I will give you the heads up.' But I thought he was joking."
Watch Gilbert Burns' assessment below (13:10):