Dricus Du Plessis swiped the middleweight belt from Sean Strickland on Saturday night, winning by split decision in their main event title fight at UFC 297 in Toronto.
Du Plessis (21-2-0) took the cards 48-47, 48-47, 47-48 to dethrone Strickland (28-6-0), who grabbed the belt from Israel Adesanya in his previous fight back on Sept. 10.
Although he lost, Strickland still landed more total strikes (183-140) and significant strikes (173-137).
A native of South Africa, Du Plessis is on a seven-fight winning streak in UFC action.
In another title fight, Raquel Pennington (16-9-0) downed Mayra Bueno Silva (10-3-1) by unanimous decision in a women's bantamweight bout.
Neil Magny (29-12-0), Chris Curtis (31-10-0) and Movsar Evloev (18-0-0) also won their fights on Saturday.
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