Joe Rogan was stunned by Saturday night’s UFC 297 headliner that saw Dricus Du Plessis walk away with the middleweight world title.
Four months removed from his dominant performance against Israel Adesanya to claim the 185-pound crown, Sean Strickland returned to defend the title against the South African finisher inside Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena. After five entertaining rounds of back-and-forth action, Du Plessis was announced as the winner via split decision. Fighters, fans, and media members were all split down the middle with many suggesting Strickland’s striking did enough to retain his title.
That includes Rogan who live-streamed his reaction alongside former heavyweight standout Brendan Schaub and others.
“Woooow! Interesting,” Rogan said, noticeably flabbergasted by the result. “Very interesting. I wonder how the people online feel about that. Cuz you know we aren’t scoring it while we’re watching it. We’re watching it and having fun. Were we wrong?…”
Joe Rogan’s Reaction to Dricus Du Plessis winning the Title
pic.twitter.com/r1fNjDNaKS— Yazko (@YazkoMotashobi) January 21, 2024
Brendan Schaubs Gives Joe Rogan His Head-Scratching Assessment of Du Plessis vs. Strickland
As Rogan continued to let the result weigh on his mind, Schaub chimed in and suggested that Israel Adesanya and divisional prospect Bo Nickal would walk through both Strickland and Du Plessis inside the Octagon.
I think Izzy or Bo Nickal eats these guy’s lunch,” Schaub added.
Clearly, Schaub completely forgot about the 25-minute ass-kicking that Sean Strickland put on ‘The Last Stylebender’ in September.
Adesanya vs Strickland kept the commentating team on the edge of their seats!
Don't miss @SStricklandMMA defend the MW title against Dricus Du Plessis this weekend
— UFC_AUSNZ (@UFC_AUSNZ) January 16, 2024
With Du Plessis now sitting atop the throne in the middleweight division, many suspect that the long-awaited clash between ‘Stillknocks’ and Adesanya will be booked for some time in 2024. Whether or not that happens at UFC 300 remains to be seen, but given the mangled appearance of Du Plessis’ face following his scrap with Strickland, we’re gonna go ahead and assume that the bout will be pushed to sometime this summer.
Sportsbooks have already released betting lines for the potential showdown with Adesanya being listed as a sizeable favorite. The oddsmakers at BetOnline.ag opened Adesanya as the -330 betting favorite against +270 for the underdog Du Plessis. Those numbers will undoubtedly fluctuate in both directions as we get closer to fight night.
Check out R3d Pill MMA‘s reaction to Brendan Schaub’s bizarre comment below: