Dricus Du Plessis Outworks Sean Strickland, Captures Middleweight Title via Split Decision – UFC 297 Highlights
The UFC has a new middleweight world champion and his name is Dricus Du Plessis.
After scoring six straight victories, ‘Stillknocks’ stepped into his first main event at UFC 297 on Saturday night against the promotion’s unlikely 185-pound king, Sean Strickland. As expected, Strickland put his jab on display early, lighting up Du Plessis in the opening round and causing some damage to the South African’s left eye. Strickland also did a fantastic job of checking the all-important leg kicks that ‘DDP’ often uses to set up his brutal body attacks.
Needing to make some adjustments in the second stanza, Du Plessis put his wrestling skills to use, dragging Strickland down to the canvas multiple times. Though ‘DDP’ was unable to keep Strickland on the canvas for long, it appeared to be sapping the champ’s energy as the fight moved into the later rounds.
Strickland turned up the heat in the fifth and final round, but not before giving up the third and fourth rounds to Du Plessis on two of the three judges’ scorecards. That ultimately made all the difference after the 25-minute affair was in the books.
Official Result: Dricus Du Plessis def. Sean Strickland via split decision (48-47, 47-48, 48-47) to win the UFC middleweight world championship.
Interestingly, fight fans on Verdict were not entirely in agreement with the judges, favoring Strickland by the narrowest of margins.
