UFC 297: How much will Dricus du Plessis get paid for beating Sean Strickland

UFC 297: How much will Dricus du Plessis get paid for beating Sean Strickland

Despite losing his UFC Middleweight championship to Dricus Du Plessis, Sean Strickland stands to walk away from UFC 297 with the biggest purse.

All told Strickland is set to earn close to $3 million for turning out, a testament to his marketability and popularity in Canada in particular.

How much will Dricus du Plessis get paid

Dricus Du Plessis is set to earn a little over $1 million once all the bonuses and other incentives have been calculated.

Du Plessis and Strickland will both get an extra $50,000 for putting on one of the fights of the night.

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DDP wins by split decision

With the judges scoring the fight 48-47, 48-47, 47-48 Du Plessis was named the new UFC Middleweight champion of the world in Toronto on Sunday 21 January.

While those scores are not cumulative, if either of the judges who had Du Plessis winning gave him one less point, Sean Strickland would have retained his UFC title.

UFC boss Dana White believes that Strickland might have edged the fight but he was happy with the outcome and said that there wouldn’t be a consideration of a rematch at this stage.

“I had it 2-2 going into the last round, and I thought Strickland won the last round,” White said.

Du Plessis is the first South African-born champion in the history of the UFC. He has now won all seven of his bouts in the UFC but his win over Strickland was his first by split decision.

During his time in the EFC, the South African-based MMA promotion, Du Plessis’ fights were all concluded by a finish. His battle with Strickland was just the second time that one of his fights went to the judges and the first time he had fought for five rounds.

It has been over five years since Du Plessis has suffered a defeat in the octagon. That defeat came in October 2018 when he lost the KSW welterweight title to Roberto Soldić in London. Du Plessis has not fought in the lighter welterweight division since and is considered a much better fighter at middleweight.