UFC 297 Preview
The UFC will be invading the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Saturday, January 20 for UFC 297. The main event will be for the middleweight title as champion Sean Strickland will defend his belt for the first time against #2 Dricus du Plessis.
Strickland won the title in his last fight by unanimous decision over middleweight legend Israel Adesanya for the biggest upset of 2023. Strickland completely overwhelmed Adesanya and proved his fighting style is one to be respected and studied.
The title win was Strickland’s third straight victory after losing two straight heartbreakers in 2022. The 32-year-old has been one of the most active fighters in the UFC having fought six times since the beginning of 2022. Despite becoming known to all the fight casuals for his controversial political and social takes, the fight world has recognized his willingness as a warrior to take any fight against any fighter.
Strickland is 9-2 in his last 11 fights with the losses coming to light heavyweight champion and former middleweight champion Alex Pereira, and former title challenger Jared Cannonier. Aside from his title win over Adesanya, he has key victories over rising contender Brendan Allen and longtime top 10 fighter Jack Hermansson. The defining win during his run at a title shot was a short notice fight at light heavyweight against Nassourdine Imavov where he won unanimously, proving his willingness to step into the octagon and go to battle with anyone.
The champion has warned du Plessis to be ready to go to war. "I genuinely like Dricus, but it's just like... here's the thing man, you know who I am, I will f****** kill you." Strickland said. ".... I'm the one guy who is okay with throwing away my life. And one day I hope that if the opportunity ever presents itself I f****** man up and I do it. And you know we're gonna have this interview and look back at it and like 'Oh yeah Sean wasn't f****** joking he really f****** threw away his life.' .... I'm okay dying as long as you die with me."
In the build up to this fight most fans assumed there was incredible bad blood between Strickland and du Plessis after Strickland jumped in the stands and attacked du Plessis at UFC 296. However, it seems Strickland was playing it up for the hype of the fight as the two have squashed the beef for now it seems. "He's a good dude," Strickland said of du Plessis.
"From my side, there's no bad blood at all," said the South African challenger. "I have a lot of respect for Sean as a fighter and even as a person."
The two could be seen having a friendly back and forth at the fighter hotel during one of the latest episodes of UFC Embedded.
Strickland commented further, "Did I look angry during that fight?" Strickland said with a laugh. "I was actually surprisingly happy the whole time. I wish I didn't like him more."
"You wouldn't expect that from the UFC middleweight champion of the world, but at the end of the day, we are still fighters," Du Plessis said. "We're still a very different breed of people, and when that happened, there wasn't even a thought process. It was just, here we go, it's fight or flight right now, and I always choose to fight. It was exciting."
Du Plessis has claimed that the skirmish in the stands did not change his mindset leading up to his first title fight. "At the end of the day, you can be the nicest guy in the world or the biggest a--hole in the world, I'm coming in there to kill you have if I have to," he said.
Strickland has once again found himself in hot water with the media before a big fight. This time after making “homophobic” comments in a back and forth exchange with a reporter at UFC media day on Wednesday. Other media members in the sports world have called for ESPN to act after considering Strickland’s comments to be unacceptable. I will not be sharing his comments and will let this story play out more before commenting on it.
As far the fight at UFC 297 goes, if Strickland gets his hand raised it will be interesting to see who he fights next. Adesanya’s name has come up despite the former champion claiming he will be taking an extended hiatus from the octagon. Should Strickland get out of this fight unphased with no injuries, the UFC could book a mega rematch with Adesanya at UFC 300. But if it is not Adesanya, then who is next?
Dricus du Plessis has won eight straight fights and is 6-0 in the UFC. His most impressive victory came in his last fight where he defeated former champion Robert Whittaker by second round TKO at UFC 290 in July. He also has wins over Derek Brunson, Darren Till and Brad Tavares.
The 30-year-old was intended to be the challenger to Adesanya at UFC 293 but could not make the date due to recovery from injury. With Adesanya’s announcement that he would be taking a break from fighting, du Plessis was the obvious choice to challenge Strickland.
The South African believes he will be more prepared for Strickland than Adesanya was. "With his style, there's things you need to make note of and I think that's the mistake that Adesanya made. He didn't take note of those things, he just saw a guy that is not on his level and he went out there and he wasn't prepared for the man that is Sean Strickland but I didn't make that mistake and believe me, I won't make that mistake. I am prepared,” said du Plessis.
Du Plessis plans to bring excitement to the fight. "I think he has his moments. I feel like it's almost dependant on the other fighter whether it's gonna be an exciting fight," Du Plessis said. "That's odds I don't like. Show me one boring fight I've had in my whole career and I'll owe you something... I don't possess the style for a boring fight; never have, never will.”
He continued, "What Sean Strickland does very well is manage his energy. That's why he doesn't have finishes, because he's a guy who — listen, if he breaks you, yeah he's gonna go for that finish. But the finish is not for him. He is there to win, he doesn't care about entertainment value," Du Plessis continued. "I hit a lot of pads, train a lot of slams, train a lot of submissions. When I'm hitting a pad, I'm not thinking about touching somebody, I'm thinking about knocking somebody out. I don't imagine fights in my mind going to the decision, where someone else decides if I win or not."
What du Plessis has is a pressure style that can counter Strickland’s own aggressive standup effectively. In Strickland’s last two losses he fought fighters in Cannonier and Pereira that moved forward against him throwing off Strickland’s preference to move forward. It will be easier said than done for du Plessis, but with two fighters’ willingness to brawl, we should be in store for an exciting main event.
The co-main event of the evening will be for the vacant women’s bantamweight title between former title challenger #2 Raquel Pennington and surging contender #3 Mayra Bueno Silva.
Pennington has won five straight fights and has gone 6-2 since unsuccessfully challenging for the title in 2018. The Ultimate Fighter season 18 winner has been fighting in the UFC since 2013 and has had a storied road to her second title shot.
Pennington will have added motivation in the lead up to this fight as Bueno Silva has not been shy about trash-talking the former title challenger, and it did not stop at Thursday’s UFC 297 Press Conference.
“Raquel, when you fight, everyone is sleeping,” Bueno Silva said.
The former title challenger responded, “Sleeping, really? You’re sitting here talking sh*t, but who have you fought?”
Pennington plans on doing the damage where it matters most. “You have so much time doing this (talking), but guess what? My fists will do the talking.”
With former champion Amanda Nunes out of the title picture, Pennington can rest easy that the `bantamweight throne is open for the taking. During their title fight back at UFC 224 in 2018, Pennington wanted to quit on the stool in between rounds four and five, while her corner was urging her to get back up and continue fighting. It was not a good look for Pennington and an episode like that can be psychologically damaging to a fighter, but the 35-year-old has stayed the course and now has a chance to win the title.
Bueno Silva has not lost in her last four fights, but her last fight originally a submission win over former champion Holly Holm, was ruled a no-contest after a positive drug test for Bueno Silva.
The Brazilian fighter is confident she will win the fight on Saturday in devastating fashion. "I will knock her out," Bueno Silva said. "I have trained hard. I don't have any knockouts in UFC, only submissions. I believe now is my time. I am ready to knock her out. She is very tough, I respect everything she did. But now is my moment."
The 32-year-old believes Pennington is not mentally tough enough to defeat her. "Do you remember when Raquel fight with Amanda? Raquel said, 'I'm done. I don't want anymore of this fight.' For this reason (I am so confident). She don't wanna fight. She doesn't like to fight," Bueno Silva said. "In the first round, when I punch her hard, she'll talk again, 'I don't wanna fight.' ... I think she don't have courage... She don't like to fight, I like to fight."
As a new era at women’s bantamweight begins, one fighter has the chance to remind everyone why she has been a top contender for the better part of a decade, the other gets to erase controversy and prove she belongs at the top. The best thing either fighter can do is win convincingly leaving no questions who the champion really is. The winner will have former champion Julianna Pena waiting in the wings for the next title shot.
The rest of the main card:
Welterweight - #13 Neil Magny vs. Mike Malott
Middleweight - #14 Chris Curtis vs. Marc-André Barriault
Featherweight- #4 Arnold Allen vs. #9 Movsar Evloev
ESPN+ Prelims:
Bantamweight - Brad Katona vs. Garrett Armfield
Featherweight- Charles Jourdain vs. Sean Woodson
Bantamweight - Serhiy Sidey vs. Ramon Taveras
Women's Strawweight - Gillian Robertson vs. Polyana Viana
Early Prelims on ESPN+ and UFC FIGHT PASS
Welterweight - Yohan Lainesse vs. Sam Patterson
Women's Flyweight - Jasmine Jasudavicius vs. Priscila Cachoeira
Flyweight - Malcolm Gordon vs. Jimmy Flick
