Chris Curtis believes Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis needed to run it back after their UFC 297 middleweight title fight.
Strickland was looking to defend his title for the first time against Du Plessis in a very intriguing matchup. It was a close fight on paper, as the oddsmakers had it as a pick’em. The fight ended up being very close and when the final bell rang, it was Du Plessis who became the new champion with a split decision win.
While his teammate had a tough time in the championship main event on Saturday, Curtis secured a win for Xtreme Couture earlier on the main card.
However, Chris Curtis who is teammates with Sean Strickland, thought the American should have gotten the win. But, he also believes the cut due to the accidental clash of heads negatively impacted Strickland.
Chris Curtis wants Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis to run it back
“I watch fights, especially my teammate’s fights, I rarely side with my teammates, I’m always cautious, and when I’m doing the scoring I always go against them. Even me being pessimistic and conservative, I had it 3-2. I had him up 3-2, I personally think the optics of getting cut may have worked against him worse. Cuts suck, but I think especially when you get cut in the middle rounds, later on in the fight, as you are still bleeding in a close round, let’s say you got cut in the first round, if you are in the fourth round and you are still bleeding, they are going to say he did more damage even though that damage happened three rounds ago,” Curtis said to TMZ Sports.
“We are just bad at differentiating that, you are human and you go off your eye test. I think he may have lost points he didn’t deserve to lose, because when it comes to who landed more and effective striking, he out-landed him. He touched him up, Sean had a cut, but Dricus’ face looked like he got hit by a small car. So, it sucks, that sucks, I thought he won. He was great warming up, he was ready, everything was great, he looked phenomenal. It sucks to lose a belt like that and it sucks to win a belt like that, so I’m really hoping they run it back to get a more definitive answer because Canadian judging is interesting,” Curtis added.
Although Chris Curtis wants Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis to run it back, after the fight, UFC CEO Dana White didn’t seem too interested in a rematch.
Du Plessis, meanwhile, turned his attention to Israel Adesanya. So, if Strickland and Du Plessis do end up fighting against one another again, it will likely happen after a couple of fights, which is disappointing news for Curtis.
