South Africa's Dricus du Plessis celebrates after beating Sean Strickland in their middleweight title fight at UFC 312.
Image: Saeed Khan / AFP
The South African flag was conspicuous by its absence during the post-fight interviews in the aftermath of Dricus du Plessis' dominating win over middleweight challenger Sean Strickland.
The champion Du Plessis hammered challenger and former champ Strickland for the better part of their five-round main event bout. It was the second time that Du Plessis had beaten Strickland in just over a year, after the SA-born fighter took the title from United States athlete in January 2024.
Overall, it was Du Plessis' third middleweight-title fight after also seeing off another former champions Israel Adesanya in his first match outing as the undisputed champions in that UFC weight division.
On the the previous two occasions Du Plessis was draped in the South African flag after his title fights with Strickland and Adesanya. However, this time around the flag was nowhere to be seen, with Du Plessis asking "why am I not allowed to have my flag."
Du Plessis walked into the arena with the South African national anthem and the country's flag over the shoulders. However, it appears he was barred from displaying the flag during the post-fight interviews.
Country flags have been quite contentious issue in the UFC over the last few years.
The sports body stopped allowing fighters to carry flags on broadcasts on the heels of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. But that ban was lifted in October 2023 after UFC supremo Dana White said the "no flag rule drove me crazy".
“Flags are back,” White told reporters at the time.
“I was on vacation during the Mexican Independence Day, and the no flag thing drove me crazy. So I was like, ‘Yeah, f*ck that. We’re bringing flags back.’ It drove me crazy.”
“There’s a lot of things that go on in a company this big,” White said. “You can’t micromanage everything. Sometimes things are done for the intentions of the right reasons, or whatever. Everybody in this room knows the way that I feel about a lot of things. Basically, ‘I don’t give a f*ck,’ is the answer to most things.
“Everybody’s too soft, everybody’s too sensitive about everything. When the decision was made to do this, I was just like, ‘Eh, what’s the big deal if they don’t have flags?’ Mexican Independence Day flipped the switch and I was like, ‘That’s enough of the no flags thing.’ Flags are back. If any flags hurt your feelings, too f*cking bad.”
So why was Du Plessis prevented from having the South African flag in the octagon after the fight with Strickland? Could US president Donald Trump's current beef with South Africa have anything to do with the decision?
After the fight Du Plessis said: "South Africans back home, thank you so much for the incredible support. It was incredible here in Australia ... the South Africans ... where is my flag? Why am I not allowed to have my flag. It's not by choice, but I hear you."
Trump has a very good relationship with White and the UFC, while Du Plessis also wore a "Trump likes winners" T-shirt to one of the pre-fight press conferences. The South African fighter also reshared some of the ridiculous and false rhetoric Trump was spewing about the the country and the recently enacted law, the expropriation act.
"Everybody’s too sensitive about everything ..." But it would be really sensitive - even childish - if Du Plessis was not allowed to display his country's because of Trump, Elon Musk and the US government’s escalating diplomatic tensions with Pretoria.
This week sport and politics definitely intertwined and we saw the pettiness and the ignorance of Trump and the United States. So it would not be a surprise to anyone if Trump asked White to keep the South African flag out of the octagon.
Why else would Du Plessis not be allowed to display it after his fight?
@JohnGoliath82