Another significant UFC event concluded this weekend, with UFC 297 giving us a new set of winners, including new middleweight champ Dricus Du Plessis and new women’s bantamweight champ Raquel Pennington.
The event was held at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada. The bout between Sean Strickland and Du Plessis was the main event, with the latter challenging the middleweight champ for his belt. The bout was considered a grudge fight between the two, as both traded barbs for the past months prior to the event. With the challenger triggering “Tarzan” with comments involving his traumatic childhood, Strickland vowed to shut down Du Plessis’ attempt to steal the belt. In the end, however, Stickland was overpowered by the South African, allowing the latter to win via split decision.
The spotlight of the event was shared with Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva, who fought for the vacant bantamweight belt after Amanda Nunes left it for her retirement. Bueno Silva, being more vocal, earlier expressed confidence in securing the title, recalling Pennington’s poor performance versus Nunes. However, “Rocky” delivered in this weekend’s event, proving that her fists “do the talking” by winning via unanimous decision.
Other veterans and up-and-coming fighters also entered the cage, giving us the following results:
- Jimmy Flick defeated Malcolm Gordon via submission (arm triangle) at the 1:17 mark of Round 2.
- Jasmine Jasudavicius defeated Priscila Cachoeira via submission (Anaconda choke) at the 4:21 mark of Round 3.
- Sam Patterson defeated Yohan Lainesse via submission (rear-naked choke) at the 2:03 mark of Round 1.
- Gillian Robertson defeated Polyana Viana via TKO (ground-and-pound) at the 3:12 mark of Round 2.
- Ramon Taveras defeated Serhiy Sidey via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).
- Sean Woodson defeated Charles Jourdain via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).
- Garrett Armfield defeated Brad Katona via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
- Movsar Evloev defeated Arnold Allen via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
- Chris Curtis defeated Marc-Andre Barriault via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28).
- Neil Magny defeated Mike Malott via TKO (ground-and-pound) at the 4:43 mark of Round 3.
- Raquel Pennington defeated Mayra Bueno Silva via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-45).
- Dricus Du Plessis defeated Sean Strickland via split decision (48-47, 47-48, 48-47).
