Chris Curtis defeats Marc-Andre Barriault at UFC 297
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, January 20, 2024, for UFC 297, going down live from the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Headlining the event is a middleweight title bout between Sean Strickland (28-5) and no. 2 ranked Dricus du Plessis (20-2).
Co-headlining the event is also a championship affair, this one coming in the bantamweight division between no. 2 ranked former title challenger Raquel Pennington (15-8) and no. 3 ranked Mayra Bueno Silva (10-2-1) 1 NC.
Our first feature fight of the evening came at 185 lbs between Chris Curtis (31-10) 1 NC and Marc-Andre Barriault (16-7) 1 NC. Curtis came into the bout having gone 4-2 (1 NC) across seven fights since making his promotional debut in November of 2021, while Barriault had gone 5-2 over his last seven coming in.
Continue reading to see how our co-main event of the evening went down:
Official Result: Chris Curtis def. Marc-Andre Barriault via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 30-27)
Curtis takes the center of the octagon once the bout begins, controlling it throughout the opening round. He lets go of a couple punch combinations early on, though Barriault defended them well. Barriault lands a good straight right down the middle, before Curtis eventually makes the adjustment and goes to the body.
Curtis lands a number of beautiful hooks to the body of Barriault, before going back to the head as the round comes to a close.
Curtis controls the striking exchanges early on in the second as well, though Barriault starts to open up with combinations of his own midway through the round. It’s weird, he hadn’t controlled the center for one second of this fight and he hadn’t tried to tie up with Curtis and press him into the fence, much less shoot in on a takedown.
Barriault finally comes alive in the third and final round, tying up with Curtis where he lands a lot of good clinch strikes. His pressure in the third is very reminiscent of the rest of his fights, it was quite uncharacteristic for it to take this long.
Curtis lands a lot of good, heavy punches as the round went on; this fight looked like a sparring match to be honest up until round three. The two both stay in the pocket in the final minute of the bout, throwing heavy leather until the final seconds run out.
Chris Curtis picks up his first win in 13 months tonight at UFC 297.
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