- John McCarthy pointed out that Dricus du Plessis should’ve made the most of his takedowns on Sean Strickland
- “Big John” thinks both “Tarzan” and “Stillknocks” respected each other too much during the fight
John McCarthy thinks Dricus du Plessis could’ve at least secured a dominant or decisive win over Sean Strickland at UFC 297 but he failed to capitalize on his takedowns.
Dricus wasted a lot of opportunities
Speaking on his Weighing In podcast, “Big John” bluntly said that there wasn’t much action that took place in the Strickland vs. Du Plessis title fight. And while “Stillknocks” ended up winning via decision, McCarthy is not impressed as he believed Du Plessis should’ve been able to pound “Tarzan” on the ground in one of his many successful takedowns.
“They both fought hard. It’s just the way they fought made it to where it was not that fight where you had moments that you were like, ‘Oh my God! Look at what’s happening!’ and things [like] momentum shifts and changes,” McCarthy said. “The momentum really didn’t shift all that much. If you were going to look for the biggest shifts of momentum, [it] was really the takedowns that Du Plessis was able to get but he wasn’t able to do a damn thing with any of them and Strickland always got back to his feet it was a moment that Du Plessis had the opportunity to do something but it always slipped by because he wasn’t able to keep Strickland in there. It was almost like a waste of time in the fight that there wasn’t that action going on.”
Dricus and Sean had too much respect for each other
Leading up to the fight, Strickland and Du Plessis have been feuding both verbally and even physically. Many believed that the drama would add intensity to the match. However, McCarthy thinks that it wasn’t the case during the fight and it looked like Du Plessis and Strickland realized that they have got to respect each other’s strengths. In the process, they ended up being too calculated throughout the fight.
“I also thought that… Both guys really ended up with a respect for their opponent and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. That is what happens when you fight somebody that’s good,” McCarthy assessed.
“Du Plessis thought that he could run through Sean Strickland, I think, and he realized right away, ‘Oh my God! No. he’s a lot faster with his jab, it’s a lot stiffer than I thought, he’s a lot more difficult to reach out and touch and I have to open up and put myself into danger to try to get those things done.'”
“In reverse, Sean Strickland had that where he looked at Du Plessis and thought he’s open, I’m just going to keep hitting him with straight shots and it’s going to end up hurting him to the point he breaks down and I take over the fight and he learned if there’s one thing that you’ve got to give DDP, you have got to give him credit, he has got a chin. He is tough as hell.”
UFC president Dana White thought Strickland won but he is not open to giving “Tarzan” an instant rematch. As for Du Plessis, he is now fancying defending his middleweight title against Israel Adesanya at UFC 300.
Check out McCarthy’s full podcast below:
