Matthew Lowrimore
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UFC 297 takes place on Saturday at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada. This card features a middleweight title fight between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis as the Main Event and Raquel Pennington against Mayra Bueno Silva for the Women’s bantamweight title as the Co-Main Event. Here are our best bets for this UFC card.
Be sure to also check out the rest of our UFC predictions for all of the main-card fights.
UFC 297 Main Card Best Bet
Dricus Du Plessis ML over Sean Strickland (+110)
The Main Event at UFC 297 will see Sean Strickland take on Dricus Du Plessis. This will be a fight in the UFC Middleweight division and will be for the UFC Middleweight title. Strickland comes into this fight with an MMA record of 28-5. He is 15-5 in the UFC, most recently beating Israel Adesanya by unanimous decision back in September of 2023. Strickland is averaging 5.82 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 41%. He is absorbing 4.24 strikes and has a striking defense of 63%.
Du Plessis comes into this fight with an MMA record of 20-2. He is 6-0 in the UFC, most recently beating Robert Whittaker by KO/TKO back in July of 2023. Du Plessis is averaging 6.95 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 55%. He is absorbing 3.79 strikes and has a striking defense of 53%. As for his grappling, Du Plessis is averaging 2.72 takedowns per every 15 minutes and 1.1 submission attempts during the same time period.
Du Plessis is the slight underdog in this fight given that he is the challenger and does not hold the Middleweight title. That being said, he has the advantage in both striking and grappling and is undefeated in the UFC. Because of that, backing Du Plessis to win will be our best bet.
UFC 297 Preliminary Card Best Bets
Sean Woodson ML over Charles Jourdain (+180)
Sean Woodson comes into this fight with an MMA record of 10-1-1. He is 5-1-1 in the UFC, most recently beating Dennis Buzukja by unanimous decision back in August of 2023. Woodson is averaging 5.41 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 46%. He is absorbing 4.00 strikes and has a striking defense of 57%. His grappling has been decent, averaging 0.71 takedowns per every 15 minutes. Woodson has a takedown accuracy of 80% and a takedown defense of 83%.
Woodson may be the heavy underdog, but looks to be a solid option to pull the upset. His striking ability is about on par with Charles Jourdain, but his grappling is much better. Because of that, backing Woodson will be our play.
Serhiy Sidey ML over Ramon Taveras (-185)
Serhiy Sidey comes into this fight with an MMA record of 10-1. He is 1-0 in the UFC, but this will his official UFC debut. Strangely enough, his lone Dana White Contender Series fight was a win against Ramon Taveras, a fight he won by KO/TKO. Sidey is averaging 4.52 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 35%. He is absorbing 4.52 strikes and has a striking defense of 42%.
Sidey is a large favorite. Having just recently won against Taveras, he still has good value.
You can also read our UFC 297 four-fight parlay at odds of +473
