UFC president Dana White said on Monday that Sean Strickland, the middleweight champion, will take on Dricus Du Plessis in his title defense on January 20.
Strickland (28-5) will be attempting to defend the championship for the first time after defeating Israel Adesanya in September. The main event of UFC 297 in Toronto will be the 185-pound championship match.
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Sean Strickland To Defend Title Against Dricus Du Plessis
Adesanya (24-3) and Strickland would have faced off right away in a rematch, but Adesanya has chosen to take an indefinite hiatus from professional fighting. Prior to Strickland earlier this year, South Africa’s Du Plessis was scheduled to play Adesanya, but he was forced to miss time due to an injury.
Strickland, 32, has won his last three fights. As late as last year, when he lost consecutive fights to Alex Pereira and Jared Cannonier, he looked far from becoming a championship contender. His nine-month ascent to the middleweight title in 2023 has been one of the biggest breakout performances of the year.
In July, Du Plessis (20-2) defeated previous champion Robert Whittaker to win the opportunity to defend his title. With victories against fighters like Whittaker, Derek Brunson, and Darren Till, he has a perfect 5-0 record in the UFC.
Dana White, the president of the UFC, used the occasion to reveal three major pay-per-view fights on Monday afternoon. The primary events of the first three UFC PPV events in 2024 will be the bouts that have been advertised.
According to sources, Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria would take first and second place in the bout, which will be the main event of the PPV in Toronto. Instead, the promotion shifted the bout to a pay-per-view in February, securing the middleweight championship match for UFC 297.
The other championship match on UFC 293 will pit Mayra Bueno Silva against Raquel Pennington for the vacant women’s bantamweight belt.
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