How a pair of unlikely title fights ended up headlining UFC 297 in Canada

The twin championship fights that close out UFC 297 on Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto come with a number of questions and pairings that very few people would have forecasted even six months ago.

In order to get you hyped for the headliners and properly set the table for what is about to transpire this weekend, let’s dive into how we arrived at each of these matchups.

WOMEN'S BANTAMWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Raquel Pennington vs. Mayra Bueno Silva

The first step on the journey to this title being up for grabs in Toronto came last summer in Vancouver, where Amanda Nunes shutout and shut down Irene Aldana to successfully defend her title and then promptly announced her retirement.

Nunes had — save for a seven-month stretch from the close of 2021 to the summer of 2022 — dominated the division for the previous seven years, and her deciding to step aside and focus on her family created an opening at the top of the division.

Most had anticipated Julianna Pena would make up one half of the inevitable battle for the vacant title given that she was the one to briefly unseat Nunes and was in line to face her in Vancouver before getting injured, but “The Venezuelan Vixen” is still not ready to return to action, and so the UFC opted to move forward without her.

Pennington was tabbed to be the backup fighting in Vancouver and arrives at her second championship opportunity on the best run of form of her career, having won five straight and six of her last seven dating back to the start of 2020. She’s a divisional stalwart with a wealth of experience, but enters this one having been on the sidelines since the opening event of last year, where she edged out Ketlen Vieira.

Now, she did venture to Vancouver and make weight successfully in June, and then hustled home to spend time with her newborn daughter, Alayah, so taking time off makes complete sense, but it is an interesting wrinkle to consider heading into this one.

Bueno Silva relocated to the bantamweight ranks at the outset of her 2022 campaign following a five-fight run at flyweight where she went 2-2-1 with a pair of submission wins, twin unanimous decision losses, and a majority draw result against Montana De La Rosa in a fight where she was docked a point in the opening round for grabbing the fence.

Since landing in the 135-pound weight class, “Sheetara” has been a force, registering three wins and one no contest, which came in a fight where she submitted former champ Holly Holm in the second round. The American Top Team representative brings a different kind of physicality and finishing instincts to the division, exhibiting a ton of forward pressure and a willingness to attack openings.

The Amanda Nunes Era was exceptional, but it officially comes to an end this weekend, when one of these two women ascend to the throne she abdicated in June, eager to begin their own lengthy run atop the bantamweight division.

MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis

In order to explain how we landed at these two facing off for the middleweight strap in Saturday night’s main event, we have to go back to last July.

At the start of the month, Strickland finished Abus Magomedov to earn his second straight win and really cement his position as a top-10 fighter in the 185-pound division. A week later, Du Plessis picked up his sixth straight UFC victory (and eighth consecutive win overall) by absolutely running through Robert Whittaker in a way that no one else had since his first encounter with Israel Adesanya.

The victory seemed to set up a clash between the South African standout and reigning champ Adesanya, as the two had been chirping one another for some time and felt like an obvious, easy pairing to put atop the UFC’s impending return to Australia in September.

But Du Plessis was dealing with injuries from his bout with Whittaker and unable to make the quick turnaround to face “The Last Stylebender” in Sydney, so the UFC tapped Strickland to step up and challenge for the title.

The purposefully polarizing American dropped Adesanya in the opening round and dominated the fight from start to finish, winning by a landslide on the scorecards and pulling off one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.

Sidenote: what’s with massive upsets happening in Australia? First Holm ends Ronda Rousey’s reign in Melbourne, and then Strickland trucked Adesanya in Sydney. If I’m a heavily favoured champ, I don’t want to defend my belt down under; no thanks.

Obviously their respective journeys to this point started well before their most recent outings, and as much as neither feels like the kind of dominant figure we traditionally picture ruling a division, it’s about time we give these two men their due.

Strickland, for all his unquestionably terrible comments and generally grating personality, is a very good fighter and a handful to deal with inside the Octagon. He’s 8-2 since returning from a two-year layoff following an horrific motorcycle accident that could have ended his career, with one of those losses coming by split decision in an ultra-close fight with Jared Cannonier.

He has beat some very good fighters and absolutely befuddled Adesanya last time out, so all the “he’s not any good” talk should probably stop.

Du Plessis has a funky, unconventional looking style in the cage, but it’s extremely effective for him and he’s been an undeniable force since touching down in the UFC. He arrived with a 14-2 record, including a stint as a two-weight champ under the EFC banner in his native South Africa and a KSW welterweight title win over Roberto Soldic, and has since posted five finishes in his six UFC wins, with Brad Tavares standing as the one and only man he’s beaten to avoid getting stopped.

He fought four times in basically 12 months from his bout with Tavares (UFC 276) and his drubbing of Whittaker (UFC 290) and just turned 30 on Sunday. It’s entirely possible that we’re not properly speaking about how exceptional “Stillknocks” has been to this point in his career, and may witness an historic moment and the dawning of a new era in the 185-pound weight class this weekend at UFC 297.