With both fighters being deceptively difficult to kill, their first encounter back at UFC 297 ended up being a tactical, back-and-forth battle that saw Du Plessis narrowly scrape out a split decision win on the scorecards to become the new champion at 185 pounds.

Dricus Du Plessis disagrees that his previous fight with Sean Strickland should have been a split decision, but acknowledged he had to earn the victory that night just more than a year ago for the middleweight belt.