UFC 297 LIVE: Strickland vs Du Plessis fight updates and results tonight
Re-live updates from the middleweight title fight, as well as a clash for the vacant women’s bantamweight belt
Dricus Du Plessis took the middleweight title from Sean Strickland at UFC 297 on Saturday, beating the controversial American via split decision.
Strickland won the belt from Israel Adesanya in September, in one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, but his first defence was an unsuccessful one.
Du Plessis entered the main event on the back of a surprise TKO of former champion Robert Whittaker last July, and although the South African failed to replicate that explosive performance, he just did enough to emerge victorious.
After five rounds, the judges’ scorecards read 48-47, 47-48, 48-47 in favour of Du Plessis, though the result could easily have gone the other way.
In the co-main event, Raquel Pennington beat Mayra Bueno Silva via unanimous decision to win the vacant women’s bantamweight title. Re-live updates and see all the results from UFC 297 below.
UFC 297 LIVE: Sean Strickland vs Dricus Du Plessis
UFC 297 LIVE: Sean Strickland vs Dricus Du Plessis
UFC 297 LIVE: Sean Strickland vs Dricus Du Plessis
Du Plessis calls out Israel Adesanya – also as expected!
“There’s a man who tried to take my shine, he lost his shine, now I’ve got his shine.
“You didn’t get in the cage tonight, but Israel Adesanya, get your ass back in the UFC so we can settle the score.”
The arena is playing Drake, who just lost £700,000 on this result.
UFC 297 LIVE: Sean Strickland vs Dricus Du Plessis
It’s hard to report much of what Strickland is saying, as the broadcast keeps censoring him – as expected.
UFC 297 LIVE: Sean Strickland vs Dricus Du Plessis
Du Plessis pays a lot of respect to Strickland, who loses the middleweight title in his first defence.
UFC 297 LIVE: Sean Strickland vs Dricus Du Plessis
AND NEW! DRICUS DU PLESSIS GETS THE SPLIT DECISION!
48-47 on all three scorecards – two in favour of Du Plessis, one for Strickland!
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