Sean Strickland grew to become the primary opponent to remedy the beforehand unsolvable puzzle that was Khamzat Chimaev.
Strickland grew to become a two-time middleweight champion thanks to a break up choice win at UFC 328, 9 months after Chimaev received the title with a unanimous choice over Dricus Du Plessis.
The South African ex-champ was in attendance at the Prudential Heart in New Jersey taking the motion in individual along with his former foes within the highlight.
Du Plessis couldn’t remedy Chimaev once they headlined UFC 319 final August as he was unable to maintain their battle on the toes lengthy sufficient to land any important offence.
In a transparent instance of MMA math being an unreliable science, Du Plessis has crushed Strickland twice – as soon as through break up choice in 2024 in Strickland’s first try to defend the title and once more through unanimous choice in 2025.
Chimaev was profitable on 12 of his 17 takedown makes an attempt in opposition to Du Plessis and gathered 21:40 of management time as he swept the scorecards final summer season. Chimaev was 9 for 16 on takedowns in opposition to Strickland however solely had 7:16 of management time, almost all of which occurred throughout a dominant first spherical.
With 50 complete minutes of expertise within the cage with Strickland and 25 with Chimaev, Du Plessis went on document earlier than the battle predicting Strickland would win the battle based mostly on the model matchup regardless of being a four-to-one underdog.
Du Plessis hasn’t fought since shedding his title however with him being 2-0 in opposition to the present champion the 32-year-old sounded assured when requested for his ideas on UFC 328 and the up to date title image.
“Combat went precisely the best way I assumed it will,” Du Plessis advised the UFC social media staff after Saturday’s predominant occasion. “Nice, nice battle by Strickland. Like I mentioned, it’s so onerous to maintain that man on the bottom. He’s extremely powerful to maintain down and he made Khamzat drained and that’s precisely what occurred. I knew, like I mentioned, within the standup (Chimaev) simply received’t give you the chance to dangle with him.
“Congratulations (to Strickland). I assume this makes me world champion once more.”
With Chimaev seemingly leaving the 185-pound division after he advised UFC president Dana White he plans on transferring up to 205 kilos, it probably opens the door for Du Plessis to return to a championship battle prior to would’ve been the case had Chimaev defended the belt.
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