UFC analyst Laura Sanko agrees with the judges’ decision to award Dricus du Plessis the win over Sean Strickland in UFC 297‘s main event, despite Strickland landing more total and significant strikes, arguing that the scoring criteria favors bigger punches and immediate damage over cumulative damage.
Laura Sanko’s on the same page with the judges who favored Dricus du Plessis in UFC 297’s main event. It was a nail-biter of a five-round match against Sean Strickland in Toronto.
“I did have Dricus, both when I watched it live and when I went back and re-watched it,” Sanko, the UFC analyst and color commentator, told MMA Fighting. She felt Dricus won by a hair’s breadth.
With this win, Du Plessis snatched the UFC middleweight title. It ended Strickland’s reign after a mere 132 days.
Strickland did manage to out-land du Plessis in total and significant strikes. But Sanko argued that stats don’t tell the whole story. She explained why the new champ, in her opinion, was able to scrape by in the middle rounds.
Sanko said, “That’s what people need to keep in mind is that there is an inherent bias to bigger punches in the scoring criteria.” She imagines a volume knob or a power meter. A big shot from one fighter swings the knob far over. A few hits from the other fighter might pull it back towards the middle, but it may never even get back to zero.
“In other words, it takes a good amount of accumulative damage to compensate for a strong amount of immediate damage,” she explained. She believes immediate damage is always more important than cumulative. But when they throw up the stats, significant strikes, it throws everybody off.
“So even if you hit the lightest jab, if it’s a distance, it is a significant strike,” she added. People want to grab onto that and say, ‘See, he won because he hit him more,’ and that’s just not how it works. But she can understand why it is incredibly confusing.
There were a lot of questions about how du Plessis would handle the championship rounds. Especially against a seasoned fighter like Strickland. As the fight progressed, du Plessis proved he could still perform at a high level. His best round was Round 4.
Sanko had the same thoughts before the bout. She was impressed with how the newly crowned 185-pound champ was able to dig deep.
“I would have been one of those people that would have favored Sean Strickland in a longer fight,” Sanko admitted. But she was really impressed to see Dricus du Plessis showcase his incredible stamina.
Strickland may have officially lost the fight and the middleweight title. But it doesn’t seem like he lost much else. In fact, there’s a case to be made that he came out slightly better than du Plessis in the court of public opinion.
The now former champ proved he belonged at the top with his UFC 297 performance. As far as breaking down the performance as a whole, Sanko agreed with a sentiment that Strickland’s head coach Eric Nicksick had.
“I think his defense is such a linchpin of his game,” Sanko said of Strickland. But there are times where it almost becomes a detriment to his ability to really put his foot on the gas.
“There is something when you watch Sean fight where you’re just like, ‘I just want 10 percent more’. It was like Eric said, I think it was after the fourth round, or maybe it was the third, but when Eric came to Sean in the corner and said, ‘I didn’t like that round at all.’ That was exactly how I felt watching the round too because he’s capable of stepping on the gas.
“But on the flip side, Dricus did do a phenomenal job of making it really difficult for Sean to do that,” she concluded.