Discus du Plessis (21-2) defeated Sean Strickland (28-6) through cut up resolution to earn the UFC Middleweight title from Scotiabank Area in Toronto at UFC 297.
Strickland was the aggressor to open the combat, with du Plessis sitting again and in search of counter alternatives. Identical to he did with Israel Adesanya, Strickland did nicely jabbing and checking kicks. Towards the top of the spherical, du Plessis shot Strickland in opposition to the cage, took him down and Strickland rapidly moved again to his ft. Strickland continued to chip away with jabs and landed an enormous proper hand to finish the spherical.
Strickland continued to jab du Plessis and the challenger had hassle discovering his vary. Late within the second, he started to seek out his openings, getting his personal photographs in earlier than taking the champ to the bottom for one more takedown.
The third noticed du Plessis proceed to maneuver ahead, sticking to his gameplan regardless of Strickland’s success jabbing and checking his photographs. Du Plessis continued to toss one-two photographs, as Strickland moved extra firmly right into a defensive place.
The championship rounds opened with each corners urging their fighters to assault. Du Plessis opened up a lower on Strickland with an enormous elbow and it appeared to wake Strickland up, who adopted with a couple of proper fingers of his personal. One other proper from du Plessis actually opened up the lower on Strickland. Strickland tried to clinch, which led to a different takedown for the challenger. Du Plessis shot once more, taking Strickland down with ease. Again on their ft, du Plessis went proper again to work with lefts and rights earlier than the top of the spherical.
Within the fifth and last spherical, Strickland tried to get again to his pinpoint hanging. Du Plessis modified ranges over and once more, kicking at Strickland’s legs, then going up high. Du Plessis shot for a takedown, however Strickland stuffed it. The final minute of the spherical got here with each fighters throwing all the pieces that they had, doing what they might to collect the previous few factors earlier than a choice.
Du Plessis turned down the UFC’s first supply for a title combat in opposition to Adesanya final September. Du Plessis is unbeaten in his UFC profession, with two knockout victories over former title contenders final 12 months in Derek Brunson and Robert Whittaker.
Strickland headed into Saturday evening’s combat together with his first title protection after surprising Adesanya in a choice victory at UFC 293. Strickland stepped in after du Plessis skipped out on the UFC’s supply for a title shot. Strickland got here into Saturday evening’s fundamental occasion with consecutive wins in 2023 after dropping each fights in 2022 by the hands of Alex Pereira and Jared Cannoneir.
