TORONTO – The UFC 297 pre-fight press conference went down Thursday and it was the initial opportunity to get a look at fighter staredowns for the first numbered event of 2024.
The card, which is headlined by a middleweight title grudge match between Sean Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) and Dricus Du Plessis (20-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC), goes down Saturday at Scotiabank Arena with a main card that airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and ESPN+.
In addition to the main event, the slate of matchups on tap include a vacant women’s bantamweight title bout between Raquel Pennington (15-8 MMA, 12-5 UFC) and Mayra Bueno Silva (10-2-1 MMA, 5-2-1 UFC), as well as a welterweight bout of Neil Magny (28-11 MMA, 21-10 UFC) vs. Mike Malott (10-1-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC); middleweight matchup of Chris Curtis (30-10 MMA, 4-2 UFC) vs. Marc-Andre Barriault (16-6 MMA, 5-5 UFC); and featherweight contender clash of Arnold Allen (19-2 MMA, 10-1 UFC) vs. Movsar Evloev (17-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC).
All five pairings were in attendance at the pre-fight press conference, where they answered questions and engaged in faceoffs.
Check out the video above to see all the staredowns.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 297.