UFC 297 Post Show debates if Sean Strickland or Dricus Du Plessis won | ESPN MMA

Brett Okamoto, Jon Anik, Din Thomas and Anthony Smith give their thoughts on the scoring the middleweight title fight between Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland that saw a new champ be crowned via split decision.

#UFC297 #DuPlessis #Strickland
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We saw draus dupy beat Sean Strickland via Split Decision uh for the UFC middleweight Championship quick thoughts for you from you guys and then we’ll get to the scorecards but what were your quick thoughts on the uh the main event I just thought it was an incredible

Fight you you got two guys that are standing in the middle of the Octagon there they they really fought a complete mixed martial arts fight I I just really enjoyed it sometimes you get worried that there’s a lot of buildup and maybe it’s not going to deliver a little bit

So these guys went at it and I enjoyed every second of De yeah absolutely they went at it they delivered they said they were going to do something they went out there and did it there was a lot of blood and anytime blood gets gets sprayed onto Dominick Cruz throughout

The night listen I’m happy with that if he can get blood on him I’m good they certainly did deliver they talked a big game all week and they uh they put on a heck of a performance let’s take a look at the scorecards maybe they’re controversial maybe not depends who how

You were scoring at home as it turned out the third round was the big one in fact every single round was scored exactly the same by all three judges except for that round three dupy taking of course on two of the three score cars and that is the difference so I will ask

You guys um you know as we all know anytime it seems like there’s a fight that’s even competitive halfway close everybody wants to talk about the scores Anthony how did you score it yeah maybe I don’t know what I’m doing I I might have I might not have any you don’t I

Had it 3-2 at least Strickland maybe 4-1 but I I think what happens sometimes we sit up here and we watch them on the screens and and the judges are right there cage side and they see the impact of each one of those shots I thought

Strickland did a really good job of of rolling with a lot of that stuff I thought his jab looked really good listen I’m calling it a robbery there is really really it was a really really close fight each round was extremely competitive so but I did have strick in

The head no I had duplicity ahead I had him winning but you were sitting Kate side I was sitting Kate side I was I I saw it as four to one maybe 32 depending on that fifth round but the third round I thought uh dupy won that well uh Dean

I’ll let you start here because uh you scored the fight for dupy what impressed you the most on him you thought he won the fight what enabled him to win this fight tonight just his pressure just his determination to get it Strickland the fact that he had Strickland backing up

And doubting himself Strickland fights best when he’s fighting forward using his jab and dictating do plus C went out there and said you know what I’m not going to allow you to do that I might not be able to get my hands on you but I’m going to make you fight a different

Style and he had him backing up the whole fight he put pressure on him and in them in them three middle rounds he didn’t allow Strickland to get many punches off that that was the first thing that I noticed it when Strickland wasn’t on his jab and moving forward he

Was having a little bit of problems with dupi and and and his timing was off a little bit he wasn’t as he wasn’t avoiding as many shots uh anytime Shawn did start moving forward he was successful and and duples he did a good job of kind of getting that momentum

Back in those moments and and making Sean start to back up clearly these guys are evenly matched right and Strickland’s jab that was omnipresent early the teep kick it did Wayne in those middle rounds I think Sean Strickland deserves so much credit I could say so many things about this guy

Even in terms of accepting this fight relative short notice I mean he had a full Camp right but they needed him to turn around quickly monetarily they made it worth his while but this dude has been an absolute Workhorse and I’m excited to see what he does in terms of

Building his way back up because his style is going to be a real pain in the neck for a lot of these middleweights he guys I want to I’m going to move to the and focus on the champion he’s a very deserving Champion whether you scored it for him or Strickland great performance

By draus dupc and it’s kind of funny because on the come up it kind of seemed like everybody was doubting this guy you know like oh he keeps on winning these fights but he’s losing them you know that was a big storyline going in the Robert Whitaker fight then he does what

He does to Whitaker then he comes out here fights a five round fight everyone was saying hey if this thing goes five rounds drus is going to be his disadvantage he was not his cardio held up well when you’re watching draus and now uh handicapping him as a champion

What do you like and and what does he bring to this division Anthony yeah okay so obviously his physicality is huge Sean strickle never gets taken down especially like that he doesn’t get held there for very long Drake has did it over and over and over I think what we

Run into sometimes with dup e is the Aesthetics of his style it doesn’t look the same it doesn’t look like we’re what we’re used to looking at it’s hard to break down it’s hard to even be analyst for the entire time it’s like I I just kept thinking he looks like he’s getting

Tired his body language says I’m exhausted but the way that he is fighting still doesn’t really change so I think maybe some of that’s on us maybe we need to get used to what we’re looking at and just accept that maybe the fighting style isn’t changing even

If the Aesthetics does make him look tired yeah no I think you put that well and I think I’ve established enough Goodwill with him to say that there is a sloppiness to what he does and I’ve heard a lot of highlevel athletes suggest that he’s really not that good and

Now that is no longer noise that we have to listen to you break through and win a world title like this and there were a lot of questions that he was unable to answer for whatever reason didn’t have a UFC Main Event didn’t when he won the KW

World title or became a two division EFC Champion never needed to go to a fourth round he was the fresher fighter at least in round four and even though his round five left a lot to be desired I think the rightful guy won yeah I thought so too he’s just not as smooth

As some of the other guys right like he’s not smooth he’s kind of robotic and he’s kind of stiff but with what stands out to me really is his level of professionalism I mean ever since he beat Robert Whitaker he’s been talking about being Champion he’s carried himself like a champion he’s dressed

Like a champion walked Like A Champion talked like a champion he’s done everything like a champion and things were lined up for him and I think that’s why he won tonight he fought like a champion going forward saying listen the belt is on the line for me I’m going to

Go get it from you I’m taking it from you [Applause]