Dricus Du Plessis dethrones Sean Strickland in UFC 297 main event،
TORONTO — The UFC has its first South African champion.
Dricus Du Plessis dethroned Sean Strickland in an entertaining and bloody fight Saturday night in the main event of UFC 297 here at Scotiabank Arena. The final result was a split decision (48-47, 47-48, 48-47) for Du Plessis. This could very easily have been the case for Strickland as well.
After the scoreboards were read, Du Plessis called for the South African flag.
“It’s ancient history,” Du Plessis said in his post-fight interview.
Strickland had a lot of success early in the fight with a nasty piston-like jab. Du Plessis not only struggled to defend it, but also struggled to get out of his own attack because of it. Du Plessis called Strickland's shot “super, super, super” good.
“It’s like someone hitting you with a rock,” he said. “It's very deceptive when he throws the jab, and he can turn it into a left hook. He does it really well.”
In the fourth round, Du Plessis turned the tables in a major way, cutting Strickland near his left eye and hurting him with a big right hand. Strickland closed well in the fifth, but Du Plessis proved his interference in a championship fight, silencing criticism of his cardio.
“Who says I’m not a five-round fighter?” said Du Plessis.
Afterward, Du Plessis called for a clash against rival Israel Adesanya, the former longtime UFC middleweight champion who said he would take time off from the Octagon. Adesanya and Du Plessis faced off in the cage in July. The two men were supposed to fight in September, but Du Plessis suffered a foot injury.
Coming in, ESPN had Du Plessis ranked No. 2 and Strickland No. 5 in the world at middleweight.
Du Plessis (21-2) has won nine straight and is 7-0 in the UFC. The Pretoria native was coming off a TKO victory over former champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 in July. Du Plessis, 30, is a former two-division EFC champion and KSW champion.
Strickland (28-6), 32, won the middleweight title by shocking Adesanya via a dominant unanimous decision at UFC 293 in September. The California native, who lives and trains in Las Vegas, ended a three-fight winning streak but has won eight of 11 since moving up to 185 pounds in 2020.
