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UFC 297 is set to take place on January 20 at the Scotiabank Arena in Ontario, Canada. The event will be the UFC's first pay-per-view (PPV) event of the year and will be headlined by a middleweight title bout between defending champion Sean Strickland and surging contender Dricus Du Plessis.
There has been some bad blood between the two heading into the bout, and things have gotten increasingly personal, making this an extremely high-stakes affair.
The middleweights got into a brawl at UFC 296 and have not held back from verbally attacking each other. As a result, a lot of attention will be on the two men come fight night, making it arguably the biggest fight of both their careers.
Sean Strickland will be one half of the main event for the sixth time in his career. He is expected to receive $542,000, with $500,000 being his base pay, and an additional $42,000 coming via incentives.
This is prior to any additional performance bonuses, and pay-per-view points. As a result, it's likely that Strickland will make over $1 million at UFC 297.
His South African foe, Dricus Du Plessis, will be taking part in his first main event under the UFC banner. Reports suggest that he will take home $350,000 as his base pay, with $32,000 in incentive pay, making for a total of $382,000. Once again, this is prior to any performance or fight of the night bonuses.
Sean Strickland describes UFC 297 opponent Dricus Du Plessis as 'awkward'
In the lead-up to UFC 297, Sean Strickland caught up with Megan Olivi for an ESPN feature and the two discussed a variety of topics. Strickland was asked what he thought about his next opponent in Dricus Du Plessis, to which he replied:
"He's awkward, you know, just f**king awkward. When you're that level of awkward, you just do weird shit, it works. He's tough, he fights hard, his coach always keeps him hard, keeps him ready. Yeah, you know, he's awkward."
Both Strickland and Du Plessis have made things increasingly personal with one another and fans will definitely want to tune in when they throw down at UFC 297.
