Dricus du Plessis takes middleweight title from Sean Strickland at UFC 297, improves to 7-0 in the UFC
Dricus du Plessis is your new UFC middleweight champion
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to us tonight, January 20, 2024, for UFC 297, going down live from the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Headlining the event was a middleweight title bout between Sean Strickland (28-6) and no. 2 ranked Dricus du Plessis (21-2). Strickland was aiming to make the first defense of his newly claimed throne tonight following a dominant victory over two-time champion Israel Adesanya this past September, where he improved his win streak to three-straight.
Du Plessis on the other hand, coming over to the UFC as the EFC middleweight champion in 2020, had gone 6-0 with five finishes through his first handful of promotional bouts to this point.
Continue reading to see how this middleweight championship main event went down:
Official Result: Dricus du Plessis def. Sean Strickland via split decision (47-48, 48-47, 48-47)
Strickland does a great job of utilizing his straight punches throughout the opening round, and also does a great job of checking all of du Plessis’ leg kicks. Du Plessis does however get a nice body kick through, and also partially lands two head kicks. Du Plessis secures a beautiful takedown, though Strickland was back to his feet quickly.
Strickland lands a hard one-two toward the end of round one, du Plessis returning with hooks of his own.
Strickland continues peppering du Plessis’ face with that stiff jab of his in the second, though du Plessis appears to find his range about seven minutes in. Strickland was making him miss a lot early on, but du Plessis lands a nice two punch combination to the body, before eventually going upstairs with success.
Du Plessis lands a lot of heavy punches to the head of Strickland as round two goes on.
Du Plessis controls the center of the octagon throughout the third round, both walking into jabs, one-twos, and landing good punches and kicks of his own.
Du Plessis opens up a nasty cut on Strickland from an elbow he landed, further worsening it after landing an equally as heavy punch later in the round. Strickland continued to land his jab, but du Plessis kept the center and unloaded on him throughout round four.
Strickland has a much better fifth and final round, though du Plessis still continued to land his own shots. This was a close one that really could’ve gone either way; both men had a lot of success, and both had their moments. However, it could be said that du Plessis landed most of the harder shots and did secure six or so takedowns throughout.
Dricus du Plessis becomes the first ever South African champion in promotional history tonight at UFC 297.
Du Plessis came to the UFC with a record of 14-2 in October of 2020. By that point in his career, he’d already won EFC championships at both 170 lbs and 185 lbs, as well as the KSW welterweight championship, a title he won by knocking out one of the best fighters outside the UFC in Roberto Soldic.
For instance, Soldic was on a seven-fight knockout streak going into their 2018 encounter, winning four title bouts in that time, his last defeat coming to former Bellator welterweight champion Yaroslav Amosov by split decision. Since losing to du Plessis, Soldic has gone 7-1 with six knockouts, reclaiming the KSW welterweight championship, and also winning the KSW middleweight championship in December of 2021.
Since joining the UFC roster du Plessis has gone 7-0, defeating the likes of Markus Perez (KO), Trevin Giles (KO), longtime divisional staple Brad Tavares (UD) in the only fight in his career to go the distance until tonight, former welterweight title challenger Darren Till (neck crank), longtime top 10 middleweight contender Derek Brunson (TKO), former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker (TKO), and now former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland (SD).
What’s more, du Plessis is 21-2 as a professional, having gone 17-1 over his last 18 with a win over that lone defeat.
If you enjoyed this piece, feel free to share it on social media!
