UFC 297: Five Things We Learned
The first UFC pay-per-view of 2024 is in the books. The event was a mixed bag of good fights, impressive victories, underwhelming contests, and questions scoring. Altogether, this gives us quite a bit to discuss and recap. Here are the five biggest lessons we learned from UFC 297.
Dricus Du Plessis has mastered his unique style:
The UFC 297 main event resulted in a close contest between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis. At the end of the bout, the judges could have reasonably rewarded either fighter the win, but Du Plessis was the fighter who got his hand raised.
I have never been as high on Du Plessis as the consensus in part because I was never a fan of his style. That said, he deserves a lot of credit for mastering his highly unorthodox approach to MMA.
Let’s start with cardio. In simple terms, Du Plessis should not be able to fight for five rounds considering how hard he throws. Logically, that should not work. Still, he went five rounds with Strickland and Round 4 was his best round.
Du Plessis’ offense is also highly unpredictable it feels like it is impossible to gauge. Despite not being highly technical, that helps him land big shots. Plus, if he lands big, he deals out damage quickly.
Lastly, Du Plessis made a few smart reads in this fight. The most obvious and pointed was throwing longer combinations once the fight got deeper. This helped him land big shots more efficiently because Strickland heavily leans back and does not counter when on the back foot.
I still do not rate Du Plessis highly as a champion. Regardless, he is going to be a tricky fighter to beat, and it is not easy to beat someone who has elite physicality paired with a unique style. That is simply a rare type of fighter.
Raquel Pennington becomes the bantamweight champion:
The UFC 297 co-main event Raquel Pennington won the UFC bantamweight bout with a decision win over Mayra Bueno Silva.
In hindsight, this ended up being a very simple fight for Pennington. Bueno Silva did not have enough cardio for a championship fight. That meant Pennington had to survive a handful of threatening exchanges. For the most part, those threatening moments were submission attempts and Pennington was able to stay safe in those positions, capitalizing once Bueno Silva gassed out.
This was not the most thrilling title fight in the history of the sport, but Pennington found a path to victory and rode it to UFC gold.
Mike Malott gets exposed:
Mike Malott had a massive opportunity at UFC 297. The Canadian was fighting in his home country with the chance the break into the welterweight rankings. Plus, Malott was gaining a ton of fans and could have further added to his hype train. Neil Magny stopped those plans.
Malott found success in the first two rounds of this fight. That includes landing big shots, takedowns, ground and pound, and chasing submission. The problem is that he had a massive cardio dump in the final round. That led to him desperately grappling which allowed Magny to work to the top position and finish the fight.
This fight was a serious indictment of Malott’s skills. Before this fight, it seemed unlikely that he would become a top-tier welterweight; however, this fight raised concerns about beating unranked competition.
The most obvious issue is that Malott has awful cardio. If he cannot complete three rounds against Magny, he will have serious problems with a lot of fighters on the roster.
It should also be stated that Malott’s submissions are not as slick as they previously seemed. It is not a secret that Magny can be submitted by elite grapplers. Well, Malott was unable to find a submission from the top position. Outside of his guillotine choke, it is difficult to crown him as a great submission artist.
I am interested to see how Malott’s career plays out. Unfortunately, a lot of red flags are present. It is hard to imagine that he will have a ton of success barring monumental changes.
Mosvar Evloev climbs the featherweight ranks:
One of the most intriguing fights on UFC 297 was Movsar Evloev versus Arnold Allen. The fight lived up to expectations. After three competitive rounds, Evloev got a decision win which jolted him up the featherweight ranks.
Evloev did some impressive work against Allen. In the second round, he landed a massive job that hurt Allen. I am not going to claim that Evloev is a world-class striker, but he has power in his hands. In the future, that can help close the gap against a more technical striker. Plus, his grappling threat has a similar threat.
I was also impressed with Evloev’s ability to edge out a close first round. That round ended up being the round that determined the fight. Despite not racking up control time, he still managed to slow Allen down and win the round, which is important at the highest level of the sport.
After beating Allen, Evloev is going to fly up the featherweight rankings. In a division that needs emerging challengers, Evloev is a fighter who has the potential to break through and eventually fight for the belt.
Arnold Allen can legitimately grapple:
We just discussed how Evloev was able to beat Allen at UFC 297, but we should not ignore the positives from Allen. I am a firm believer in being able to learn positives from a loss. This fight was a great example.
Allen has not fought an offensive wrestling in a long time as was tossed directly into the shark tank as he fought Evloev. At the end of the fight, I was impressed with Allen’s defensive grappling. No, he did not pitch a no-hitter defending takedowns and he did not win the grappler, but he still showed solid instinctual defense. More importantly, he worked relentlessly to stand up when taken down and I love to see a fight that works like a maniac to stand up the second they are taken down. In the long run, that will help him win fights.
Let’s not forget that Allen nearly landed a ninja choke; it was not just defensive wrestling that he showed. In the final round, he aggressively attacked the neck and nearly ended the fight.
In all likelihood, Allen will not run into a grappler of Evloev’s caliber for a while. That creates optimism that he can defend grappling in future bouts.
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