Jan 20, 2024; Toronto, Canada, USA; Dricus Du Plessis (blue gloves) celebrates defeating Sean Strickland (red glove) during UFC 297 at ScotiaBank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports Middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis pulled off a stunning victory and successful title defense on Saturday night, getting No. 2 contender Israel Adesanya to tap out in the fourth round of their championship fight at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia.
In a highly anticipated main event that lived up to the billing, Adesanya — the former champion who was fighting for the first time since September of last year — took two of the first three rounds on one scorecard, while two other judges had Du Plessis leading 2-1 in rounds.
But with little more than a minute and a half left in the fourth, the South African Du Plessis landed three straight rights to send Adesanya stumbling around the octagon. Du Plessis then took Adesanya to the mat, jumped on his back and put a chokehold on his opponent.
Adesanya tapped out with 1:22 left in the round.
It was Du Plessis’ first successful title defense as the 30-year-old improved to 22-2-0 in his career. Adesanya is now 24-4-0 overall.
In the co-main event, Kai Kara-France emphatically announced his return to the flyweight division, ending a 14 1/2-month layoff with a stunning first-round stoppage win over Steve Erceg. With 1:10 left in the round, Kara-France sent Erceg to the mat with an overhand left. Erceg was able to get to his feet within a few seconds but Kara-France never relented, sending Erceg to the floor again with 59 seconds to go. The referee immediately stepped and ended the fight with 56 seconds on the clock.
Kara-France (25-11-0) last won a fight on March 26, 2022, beating Askar Askarov by unanimous decision. He was 0-2 between that fight and Saturday night.
While Adesanya-De Plessis was the headliner, perhaps no fighter had a bigger night than welterweight Carlos Prates. The UFC rookie, fighting in his third bout for the promotion, scored a historic victory in improving to 3-0 with the UFC.
The “Dana White’s Contender Series” alum became the first person to knock out veteran Li Jingliang, flooring the Chinese fighter a minute into the second round. The Brazilian Prates landed a series of blows to leave Jingliang stunned and slow to defend himself on the fence, then finished the job with a left hook.
Jingliang has fought exclusively with UFC for 10 years and fell to 19-9-0 in his overall career.
In other results from the main card:
** Lightweight: Dan Hooker def. Mateusz Gamrot, split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
** Heavyweight: Jairzinho Rozenstruik def. Tai Tuivasa, split decision (29-28, 27-30, 30-27)
–Field Level Media
