When Laura Sanko made an eye-opening deep dive into Dricus du Plessis' razor-close win over Sean Strickland: "Inherent bias to bigger punches"

Laura Sanko once made a deep dive into Dricus du Plessis' victory against Sean Strickland in their first encounter. Sanko, a former MMA fighter and current UFC analyst-cum-commentator, addressed the intense debates regarding the judges' scorecards and explained why du Plessis got the judges' nod.

The UFC 297 event in January 2024 witnessed du Plessis dethrone then-champion Strickland via split decision (47-48, 48-47, 48-47) to become the new UFC middleweight champion.

Speaking to MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Laura Sanko suggested that she scored the fight for Dricus du Plessis but implied that the scorecards could've gone either way:

"I did have Dricus -- both when I watched it live and when I went back and rewatched it, I had Dricus winning, but, like, by the narrowest of margins, smallest of margins. And if, people who are scoring it for Sean, absolutely, that's a correct scorecard."

Sanko credited UFC fighter-turned-analyst Din Thomas for drawing parallels between Strickland and MMA legend Jorge Masvidal. She indicated that Strickland and Masvidal sometimes dominate opponents but don't necessarily go all out, which works against them in the judges' eyes. Sanko noted:

"It was just a lack of -- you can't even say it was a lack of volume because it wasn't a lack of volume -- it was a lack of oomph on the majority of his shots that, just, again, allowed 'DDP' to pull away just by the narrowest of margins."

Moreover, she highlighted that the fight stats displayed to the fans, including metrics such as significant strikes, don't adequately differentiate between low-powered and high-powered strikes.

Sanko alluded that Dricus du Plessis suffered more visible damage against Sean Strickland, but she signaled that visible impact trumps visible damage. She opined that 'DDP' still seemingly landed the more impactful strikes, which was the difference-maker on the scorecards, securing him the razor-thin win:

"That's what people need to keep in mind is that there is an inherent bias to bigger punches in the scoring criteria ... It takes a good amount of accumulative damage to compensate for a strong amount of immediate damage. Immediate is always more important than accumulative."

Check out Sanko's comments below (6:30, 9:00, and 10:00):

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Dricus du Plessis' recent remarks about Sean Strickland lamenting UFC 297 scorecards

Since their first encounter, Dricus du Plessis defended his UFC middleweight championship by submitting Israel Adesanya in August 2024. Meanwhile, Sean Strickland bested Paulo Costa via split decision in June 2024. Presently, du Plessis is booked to defend the title in a rematch against Strickland on Feb. 9, 2025 (local time in Australia).

Strickland has consistently maintained that he was wronged on the scorecards in their previous encounter. During a recent interview with ESPN MMA, South Africa's du Plessis was asked about the same.

Emphasizing that several Strickland fights have ended in split decision verdicts, Dricus du Plessis highlighted that the American's fighting style entails attempting to win on the scorecards. The reigning 185-pound kingpin opined that 'Tarzan' isn't a notable finisher:

"The man is not oblivious to the fact that he's not a big finisher and that he points his way to victory. So, for him to talk about the scorecards seems very fitting."

Watch du Plessis' assessment below (5:38):