UFC 297 was a great blockbuster event to kick off 2024 and if this is a sign of things to come in the UFC, I am extremely excited for this year’s fights. After watching the main event which was deemed to be the fight of the night between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight UFC Championship, we’re all thinking the same thing — Was Strickland robbed of his title? Before we get into this heated argument, let’s take a moment to talk about some of the other fights.
Allen vs Evloev
In a Featherweight bout, Englishman Arnold Allen exchanged fists with undefeated Russian Movsar Evloev in what was a very close fight. The fight was very technical, as both fighters attempted to land sharp strikes and often used feints and jabs to open up a space to land a significant strike. Evloev dominated with takedowns and superior wrestling ability, however Allen managed to keep up and defend a couple of takedown attempts and being able to get out of the ones he was caught in.
Allen looked to have more significant strikes by the end of the three rounds, however still lost via split decision. I thought this fight could have gone either way to be honest and it even looked like Evloev was visibly more damaged. I think this was the start of poor scoring decisions from the judges.
Curtis vs Barriault
This was a middleweight bout which promised so much more than it delivered. Everyone was expecting this fight to go down like the Strickland vs Du Plessis fight because Chris Curtis and Marc-André Barriault are both forward-foot fighters. However, for this fight Barriault was aware of Curtis’ rock-solid defence and thus decided to counter-punch instead.
The fight got off to a slow start with Curtis dominating the centre of the octagon, practically begging for Barriault to exchange blows with him in the middle but the Canadian refused to play ball. The crowd was clearly annoyed by this and you could hear their disappointment in the forms of boos and groans, However to all our dismay, this pattern continued for 2 and a-half rounds until the final 30 seconds of the fight where Barriault decided to go all-out to try and find a finish because he had clearly lost the previous two rounds.
The final 30 seconds of the fight was fantastic and almost made up for the lack of action in the first 2 rounds. In the final 30 seconds, both fighters were literally brawling in the middle of the octagon, exchanging hooks, uppercuts, knees, jabs, body shots, leg kicks — you name it. They were in a tight clinch, trying to out-strike each other with zero defence and if this went on any longer, I’m sure one of them would have dropped flat on the mat eventually. This fight was straightforward enough for the judges to score as Curtis had more total and significant strikes and quite evidently won all three rounds.
Strickland vs Du Plessis
Before I get into the stats, I want to highlight how good this fight was. In the press conference leading up to the fight, both fighters promised us a war and that’s exactly what we got! Strickland and Du Plessis left everything out there and fought with heart and grit, it was an amazing contest and honestly could have gone either way — It was that close.
Strickland took round one without much fuss as he used his typical boxing repertoire to walk forward and control the Octagon while Du Plessis was slightly cagey, occasionally testing the waters with low kicks which were mostly checked, however he did manage to land a couple of strong body kicks. At the start of the second round, it was mostly the same with Strickland landing that left jab with pinpoint accuracy, however Du Plessis began switching up his stance and using his unorthodox style of kicks, left-hooks and spinning back fists to confuse the champ.
He also started mixing in takedowns which worked to his advantage as his sheer size allowed him to put Strickland on the floor although damage was minimal and Strickland was able to wrestle out of these clinches every single time. Round two could have gone either way as both fighters had 26 total strikes each, however Du Plessis had 4 more significant strikes than his opponent and successfully completed a single takedown which ruled this round in his favour.
Again, round three could have gone either way… I’m aware I keep repeating this for every round but that just goes to show how close this fight really was and you can see how difficult it must have been for the judges to score. I thought round three was pretty even in terms of strikes landed and damage delivered, Strickland continued with the same offesive style as he did in previous rounds, however Du Plessis began finding his range in this round and had more success with his fists and also managed to land a few good kicks which forced the champ to retreat and focus on defence at times.
According to the stats, Strickland landed a total of 31 strikes while Du Plessis landed 29, there were 0 takedowns this round so technically the champ won round 3. Round four was the challenger’s best round in the entire fight. In the previous rounds he was slowly growing into the fight and finding his range, now he was comfortable and taking it to the champ. Du Plessis came out swinging this round with all types of boxing and kicking combinations, forcing Strickland backwards and then managed to successfully take down the champ 3 times out of 5 attempts.
This round was without a doubt the challenger’s and I was hugely impressed with how Du Plessis used the first 2 rounds to observe the champ’s fighting style and then re-adjusted his offensive approach to get into range and then use takedowns to catch the champ off-guard. It showed the challenger’s ability to think on his feet and adapt against his opponents. The score was now 2–2 so the fifth round was going to determine the winner of the fight.
The champ came back hard in the final round, he was absolutely going for it, bombarding Du Plessis with left-jabs and right-hooks and those right-hooks were bombs and filled with immense power. Credit to Du Plessis as he managed to stand upright and continued to land counter-shots while having to defend for most of the round. The last minute or so was carnage as both men were cut and bleeding, standing toe-to-toe in the middle of the Octagon trading blows.
They were hitting each other with everything they had, all technique was out the window now, it was jabs, kicks, high-knees, body kicks, constant barrages from both fighters right until the clock ran out. Du Plessis attempted 2 takedowns in the final round but Strickland fended off both. As per the stats, Strickland landed 53 strikes in the final round while Du Plessis landed 35. If my math is correct, that should be 3 rounds for Strickland and 2 for Du Plessis. As a neutral who watched the fight and looking at the stats, it’s clear this was indeed a robbery and Strickland should have won by decision.
I’m not taking anything away from Du Plessis because he fought surprisingly well and deserves all the credit for going toe-to-toe against the very best in the division so in my opinion if he had lost this fight, he would deserve another title shot because it was an extremely close fight. However, Strickland did not deserve to lose so I hope we get another rematch between these two because it will be another amazing fight.
There are various reason why Strickland might have been robbed but I don’t feel like getting into conspiracy theories so I’m just going to leave it at the judges got it wrong and in a title fight of this quality and significance, it’s definitely a disgrace and there should be more impartial judges considered for future UFC events.
