Dricus du Plessis got the job done as promised, mixing wrestling and subtle striking adjustments to outpoint Sean Strickland and become the new middleweight king before an inevitable Israel Adesanya callout. Prior, Raquel Pennington outsmarted Mayra Bueno Silva to seize the vacant women’s bantamweight title after Movsar Evloev’s career-best win over Arnold Allen.
du Plessis does enough to edge past Strickland
A lot of people felt differently when the scorecards were read out, but Dricus du Plessis withstood Sean Strickland’s best strikes early and utilised timely pressure with calculated takedowns to earn a split decision win on Saturday night in Toronto, becoming the new UFC middleweight champion.
The proud South African promised he would showcase his best work over the championship rounds but impressively did so, with skewed eyesight and burning lungs, such was the frenetic pace their exchanges often proved. Who would last?
Strickland’s cardio hasn’t been questioned and neither has the now-former titlist’s heart, but his unorthodox Philly shell stand-up defence didn’t help him stay at range as time wore on and the challenger grew emboldened to vary his attacks.
Kicks to the head and lower leg took their toll, as du Plessis’ early spinning strikes told the story of an impatient title challenger in his biggest fight yet.
Slowing them down, being more methodical and importantly mixing in wrestling in the latter third of rounds helped his case whenever there were closely-contested frames tough to settle on an outright winner. As Strickland’s coach Eric Nicksick would say, it’s all about optics and timing when things are tight.
After an emotional post-fight speech where he called for a grudge match against two-time former champ Israel Adesanya and respect given between combatants, he limped off into the night with modest fanfare given the stakes.
Armed with a badly cut eye and sore foot among other new niggles, he spoke about wanting to return at UFC 300 in April.
Khamzat Chimaev has already thrown his name in the hat, Adesanya spoke about an unfinished story on his YouTube channel while Strickland – who many felt edged it – will be back, though a rematch isn’t the immediate plan.
UFC 297, other results in full
Main card
Raquel Penington banished a disappointing first-round out of her memory en route to claiming the vacant women’s bantamweight championship with a workmanlike display over 25 minutes against Mayra Bueno Silva (49-46, 49-46, 49-45) – as now-retired former queen of the division Amanda Nunes was among the interested cageside audience.
Neil Magny scored a last-gasp TKO win over Mike Malott to defend his top-15 welterweight ranking against the odds with another upstart testing him dearly.
It wasn’t always pretty, but Chris Curtis got the job done at middleweight with a split decision nod (30-27, 28-29, 30-27) over hometown hopeful Marc-Andre Barriault.
Movsar Evloev stayed perfect as a pro, moving to 18-0 after a hard-fought decision win over 15 minutes against #4 ranked Arnold Allen at featherweight.
Prelims
In the night’s featured prelim at bantamweight, Garrett Armfield won a UD3 against Brad Katona (29-28 x 3) and the 27-year-old is currently riding a two-fight win streak with the promotion after defeat by old amateur foe David Onama on his debut in July 2022.
Sean Woodson scored a split decision win over Charles Jourdain at featherweight (28-29, 29-28 x 2) in an outcome that baffled fans more than anything after referee Jerin Valel’s blunder as the scorecards were read. There was another split decision in the fight beforehand, as Contender Series graduate Ramon Tavaras bt. Serhiy Sidey by the same scorecards at bantamweight.(139.5lbs, as Tavaras missed dangerous.
After being outpointed by Tabatha Ricci last June, Gillian Robertson produced a bonus-inducing despite in-front of her home crowd to swarm Polyana Viana with a R2 TKO (ground strikes from back mount, 3:12).
Early prelims
In the welterweight division, Sam Patterson scored a first-round submission win (rear-naked choke, 2:03) against Yohan Lainesse.
At women’s bantamweight, Canada’s own Jasmine Jasudavicius returned to winning ways with a third-round submission victory over Priscila Cachoeira (D’arce choke, 4:21)
In the PPV opener at a catchweight bout (127.5lbs), Jimmy Flick scored a second-round submission win (arm-triangle choke, 1:17) against Malcolm Gordon and left with a 20% bonus after the 33-year-old missed weight for a second successive fight 24 hours earlier.
Picture source: Getty Images, quotes via UFC broadcast
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