Following last night’s UFC 297 event in Toronto the recipients of the evening’s $50,000 bonus awards were announced.
Earning ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors was the main event middleweight title clash between Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis, which went the full five rounds.
Strickland started off well with his cultured jab being his weapon of choice, but as the rounds went on both fighters started to wear visible damage to the face, and despite pre-fight question marks about his cardio du Plessis started to edge ahead as he mixed up his striking with takedowns. That left all to fight for in the final round and Strickland increased his work-rate and aggression, giving the judges plenty to think about at the end of the fight. In the end though it was du Plessis who had done enough to win and be crowned the new champion via split-decision (48-47 x2, 47-48).
Meanwhile, on the prelims Gillian Robertson put on a strong showing against Polyiana Viana that resulted in a 2nd round TKO finish, while Jasmine Jasudavicius was able to secure an anaconda choke submission win over Priscila Cachoeira in the final round.
