The forthcoming matchup between Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis has been broken down by Chael Sonnen, who has provided them with his analysis. In the main event of UFC 297, which will take place this coming Saturday night, the reigning middleweight champion of the UFC, Strickland, is scheduled to defend his title against UFC middleweight champion du Plessis.
The mixed martial arts fighter-turned-analyst Sonnen made the suggestion on his YouTube channel that du Plessis had not been as busy as ‘Tarzan’ in recent months and has not competed in a five-round showdown. He stated that, on the other hand, Strickland has the experience of competing in mixed martial arts bouts that last for five rounds, and that he accomplishes some of his most impressive work in the championship rounds (four and five).
Sonnen expressed his opinion that there are “a lot of question marks” in relation to du Plessis. The South African boxer had warned him that he would take ‘Tarzan’ down and beat him up, and he made a reference from it. As someone who had previously trained with Strickland, he made a reference to the fact that he was a more competent wrestler and mentioned that he was unable to knock Strickland down and beat him up while they were in training together.
Chael Sonnen is of the opinion that his fellow American fighter is capable of combating the wrestling of Dricus du Plessis, despite the fact that he recognized that he may be personalizing the analysis. He made the insinuation that ‘DDP’ did, in fact, possess the characteristics of a prospective champion and has enjoyed success in his own life.
In spite of this, he believes that Strickland will emerge victorious in the UFC 297 fight through a process of attrition. According to Sonnen:
“Dricus du Plessis is an incredible fighter,” the speaker said. Simply said, I do not believe that he is Sean Strickland. And I don’t believe that when things get difficult, especially when somebody has to desire it more than the other man, shouldn’t that be the case? That’s going to take between three and five minutes, people. Who is a better fighter? Without a doubt, that will be over by the time the first round is complete.
He went on to say:
For around the first three minutes of the match, the entire game and the entire battle to determine who is the superior fighter are the ones that matter. And without a doubt, we will be finished in five minutes. At this point, you are in the tough guy business since you have seen a second round. When you witness a third and fourth round, you are now going to be in the business of being an extremely tough guy. I’m going to take Sean Strickland, they are both tough guys.
UFC champion explains possible advantage Sean Strickland has over Dricus du Plessis at UFC 297
Sean O’Malley, the current bantamweight champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, recently posted a video on his YouTube page in which he made a reference to the unanimous decision victory that Sean Strickland achieved over Israel Adesanya in September of 2023. The character ‘Sugar’ praised ‘Tarzan’ for the calmness he demonstrated throughout his championship-winning performance versus ‘The Last Stylebender’.
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In connection with this, O’Malley stated that he would choose Strickland to emerge triumphant in their UFC 297 fight if he were to face off against du Plessis in a manner that was comparable to the one that Strickland had shown in the past. ‘Sugar’ made a statement that is comparable to Sonnen’s most recent analysis, stating that competing against ‘Tarzan’ in five-round bouts is a formidable obstacle. It was him who said:
When Sean Strickland performs as well as he did against Israel Adesanya, I believe that he will be able to defeat the Democratic Party… I mean, he appeared to be pretty cool when confronted by Izzy… It would be a nightmare to play five fives against Strickland… It’s hard for me to say… I simply have a feeling that Strickland is capable of completing the task at hand.
