Dricus Du Plessis reflects on championship win over Sean Strickland

The middleweight title changed hands in the UFC 297 main event on Jan. 20 in Toronto, Canada.  Dricus Du Plessis defeated Sean Strickland via split decision to capture the 185-pound championship.  

The fight was a closely contested match and some, including UFC President Dana White, scored the fight for Strickland.  Knowing that he lost the first round, Du Plessis believed that he won the next three.  

“The fight was pretty close.  I knew I had lost round one when I went to the corner because that was our game plan.  Our game plan was to fight Sean Strickland’s fight in the first two rounds but fighting the exact fight that he would fight, going forward and landing one punch, one punch, one kick,” Du Plessis told the Anik & Florian Podcast.    

“That would surprise them, though, because they’d think I would come out with big bombs early.  Obviously, the first round I went to the corner and obviously my coach was shouting to me when the round. is about to end to get the takedown, and we made sure we got that at the end of every round to either level the playing field or make sure we tipped the round in our favor.  That was our plan.  It wasn’t to get him down and hold him down.  It was to get the takedown, secure the position, and get back up,” continued Du Plessis.  

“The first round I went to the corner and I said I think we need to do a little bit more than that because we lost that round and they said, ‘you definitely did.’  In the second round, I thought we won that.  He said he thinks it was really close but my coach said, ‘I think you won that round but it was very close.’  Three and four, I definitely won those rounds.  I felt incredibly good in those rounds.”  

Related: Robert Whittaker on Dricus Du Plessis beating Sean Strickland” ‘I don’t know why it’s controversial’

When the scorecards were being read by Bruce Buffer, Du Plessis had no doubt that he won the fight.

“Before we went to a split decision in my mind I won the fight.  I felt going into the fifth, even in the fifth, I felt Sean Strickland gave it his all but only at the end of the round.  I felt I controlled that fifth round up until the very, very end,” Du Plessis said.  

“How I took that, when he started throwing those just haymakers, I took that as, and his corner shouted ’30 seconds.  There’s 30 second of the round left,’ in my mind I thought, yeah, because he has to.  This is his Hail Mary.  He is losing this fight.  I really, honestly thought I won the fight.”