Sean
Strickland’s first middleweight title defense won’t come
against Khamzat
Chimaev as originally anticipated.
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UFC CEO Dana White announced Monday that Strickland will face
Dricus Du
Plessis in the UFC 297
main event. While Chimaev defeated Kamaru
Usman in what was billed as a title eliminator at UFC 294 on
Oct. 21, “Borz” might not be ready to compete in January after
suffering a torn ligament in his hand during the bout.
UFC 297 takes place on Jan. 20 in Toronto and will also see
Raquel
Pennington square off against Mayra
Bueno Silva for the vacant women’s bantamweight title.
Du Plessis was initially supposed to face then-champion Israel
Adesanya in a grudge match at UFC 293, but the South African
standout was not healthy enough to fight at the event. That opened
the door for Strickland, who took a surprising five-round verdict
against “The Last Stylebender” to claim 185-pound gold in Sydney on
Sept. 9. Strickland has won nine of his last 11 promotional
appearances dating back to October 2018.
A former KSW and Extreme Fighting Championship title holder, Du
Plessis has been victorious in his first six Octagon appearances,
finishing all but one of his opponents inside the distance. He
solidified his spot at the division’s No. 1 contender with a
second-round technical knockout victory against ex-champ Robert
Whittaker at UFC 290 on July 8.