For the first time in five years, UFC was back in Toronto and it was a week to remember. From the Wednesday media day to the last fight on Saturday, the week was filled with everything from non-stop quotes to great fights in the octagon.
The main event was Sean Strickland v. Dricus Du Plessis. Strickland, the UFC’s anti-hero, set to defend the middleweight belt for the first time against Du Plessis who is the no. 2 contender, being a formidable opponent with great knockout power Du Plessis.
In the month leading up to the fight, Strickland and Du Plessis had a few brutal verbal exchanges, with Du Plessis taking shots at Strickland’s hard childhood. The verbal exchanges led to a physical encounter in the crowd at UFC 298 where both are seen boasting on camera before Strickland jumps over two rows of chairs and starts punching Du Plessis. The physical encounter only lasted a few seconds before it was quickly broken up by their peers.
Despite the verbal and physical exchanges between the two, they buried the hatchet heading into fight week and were quite respectful towards each other. “We were being respectful towards each other… I do respect [Strickland] a lot but I am not going to let you bully me,” said Du Plessis during his media availability on Jan. 17 when referring to the banter leading up to fight week.
“Dricus likes to fight and he is a hell of a fighter… It was never personal,” said Strickland at the pre-fight press conference on Jan. 18. The two were even seen on “UFC Embedded” having a civil conversation in the lobby of their hotel; both fighters were focused on Saturday night and no longer felt the need to play the mental games.
The fight played out exactly as all fans hoped and expected. Both Strickland and Du Plessis exchanged blows in the middle of the ring for much of the fight. Strickland got the better of Du Plessis in round one with a couple of jabs that ended up swelling Du Plessis’s eye shut. Despite fighting with just one eye, Du Plessis was able to gain some momentum in the second round and land some devastating blows to the left side of Strickland’s face resulting in a brutal cut and a lot of bleeding, which eventually hindered Strickland’s vision. Du Plessis carried the momentum from round two to rounds three and four landing more significant strikes and utilizing takedowns to disrupt Strickland’s flow.
But the Champion was not just going to roll over and die. Strickland, regarded as the best boxer in the UFC, utilized his jab and right hooks to punish Du Plessis throughout round five until the final horn. After five rounds, the judges scored the fight as a split decision in the favour of Dricus Du Plessis crowning him the new Middle Weight Champion of the world.
However, in a post-fight press conference, President of the UFC, Dana White explained that he thought Strickland won the fight. “I had it 2-2 going into the last round and I thought Strickland won the last round… I believe you have to take it from the champion”.
When Du Plessis was told that Dana scored the fight in Strickland’s favour, he was not too happy. “Well b******t,” said Du Plessis with a snarl in his voice. When asked about potentially headlining UFC 300, Du Plessis was all for it, saying “I don’t want to put a timer on it, but UFC 300 sounds amazing.”
With that statement and an expected announcement from Dana this week, will Du Plessis finally get his long-awaited date in the octagon with former champion Israel Adesenya?
For more information on UFC 297, visit UFC.com, where you can find all stats, highlights and scorecards.