UFC 297: Strickland vs Du Plessis

UFC 297 PPV was UFC’s first PPV event of the year 2024. The event took place in Toronto, Canada, on January 20, 2024. The main event of the show featured a UFC Middleweight Championship match between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis.

event info

Promotion: Ultimate Fighting Championship
Date: January 20, 2024
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Venue: Scotiabank Arena
Start Time: Early Prelims (6:30 pm ET), Prelims (8 pm ET), Main Card (10 pm ET)
Network: ESPN +(US), TNT Sports (UK), UFC Fight Pass (Worldwide)
Tickets: On Sale
Cageside commentators: Dominick Cruz, Jon Anik & Daniel Cormier
Octagon announcer: Bruce Buffer
Roving reporter: Megan Olivi

fight card

MAIN CARD

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Main Event: Sean Strickland(c) vs Dricus Du Plessis

Co-Main Event: Raquel Pennington vs Mayra Bueno Silva

Mike Malott vs Neil Magny

Chris Curtis vs Marc-André Barriault

Arnold Allen vs Movsar Evloev

PRELIMS

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Brad Katona vs Garrett Armfield

Charles Jourdain vs Sean Woodson

Serhiy Sidey vs Ramon Taveras

Gillian Robertson vs Polyana Viana

EARLY PRELIMS

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Yohan Lainesse vs Sam Patterson

Jasmine Jasudavicius vs Priscila Cachoeira

Malcolm Gordon vs Jimmy Flick

CANCELED OR POSTPONED BOUTS

• Jan Blachowicz vs Aleksandar Rakic (Blachowicz Pulled out due to injury)
• Dominick Reyes vs Carlos Ulberg (Ulberg pulled out due to injury)

NOTES

UFC returned to Toronto, Canada with its first PPV event of 2024. This was the seventh UFC PPV event to take place in Toronto. The last UFC event in Toronto was UFC 231 in December 2018.

Dana White announced on November 6, 2023, that a middleweight title bout between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis would headline the show.

Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva were announced to clash in the co-main event for the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship. Amanda Nunes relinquished the title after her retirement at UFC 289.

Jan Blachowicz vs Aleksandar Rakic bout was announced for the event, but Blacowicz had to pull out of the bout due to a shoulder injury. Rakic then called out Jiri Prochazka for a fight at the same event, but Prochazka asked for more time, and the bout was announced for UFC 300 instead.

Dominick Reyes vs Carlos Ulberg was first announced for this event, but Ulberg suffered an injury. The bout was then moved to UFC Atlantic City Fight Night on March 30, 2024.

Serhiy Sidey defeated Ramon Taveras during week 5 of the Dana White Contender Series season 2023 and earned a UFC contract. However, several media members, fans and even Dana White deemed it an early stoppage. Ramon Taveras was brought back for a fight in Week 10 of the same season and he defeated Cortavious Romious to earn a UFC contract. Dana White then announced a rematch between Sidey and Taveras for this event.

UFC Featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria was earlier expected to take place at this event. However, Volkanovski took a short-notice fight against Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev at the UFC 294 event. The bout between Volkanovski and Topuria was then shifted to UFC 298 in February instead.

Jasmine Jasudavicius vs Priscila Cachoeira bout was announced as a flyweight bout. On the day of the weigh-in, a report came out stating that the fight was turned into a bantamweight bout due to Cachoeira having issues making 126 lbs for a flyweight bout. Both Jasudavicius and Cachoeira weighed at 133 lbs at the weigh-in.

Serhiy Sidey vs Ramon Taveras was announced as the bantamweight bout. But, Taveras missed the bantamweight limit as he weighed in at 139.7 lbs. He was fined 30% of his purse and the bout was turned into a catchweight bout at 139.7 lbs.

Malcolm Gordon vs Jimmy Flick was announced as the flyweight bout. But, Gordon missed the weight flyweight limit as he weighed at 127.5 lbs. He was fined 20% of his purse and the bout was turned into a catchweight bout at 127.5 lbs.

Debut Fighters: Serhiy Sidey, Ramon Taveras

Performance Bonuses: Fight of the Night – Sean Strickland vs Dricus Du Plessis, Performance of the Night: Gillian Robertson and Jasmine Jasudavicius

see also

• UFC SCHEDULE
• MMA SCHEDULE

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