Gary Lemke looks back at a jam-packed sporting weekend as Dricus Du Plessis dominated Sean Strickland to defend his UFC belt, as Liverpool crashed out of the FA Cup.
DU PLESSIS DOMINANT IN UFC DEFENCE
Anyone who can snap a grotesquely disfigured and bloodied nose back into shape during the fight is one tough cookie. But toughness alone doesn’t beat Dricus du Plessis and Sean Strickland didn’t have much else going for him in their UFC Middleweight title fight in Sydney.
Du Plessis made a successful second defence of his belt when he won every round against the man he’d beaten a year ago to take the title. This won’t make the list of top 20 fights of 2025, but Du Plessis did what he had to do.
There was no disputing his superiority as he dominated Strickland standing up. He was busier, more accurate and employed more variety in a one-sided encounter that spells the end of Strickland as a contender. Next up for the South African? No3-ranked Khamzat Chimaev, it seems.
ROMANCE OF THE CUP? TELL THAT TO LIVERPOOL
The English FA Cup is the greatest club knockout competition in the world and it has that tag for a reason. They call it the “romance of the cup” when a so-called smaller team slays a giant.
Which is what happened in the Last 32 with Plymouth Argyle, rock bottom in the English Championship, beating LIverpool, top of the Premier League, 1-0. That left 11 EPL clubs going into Monday’s Last 16 draw.
The other mild surprises from the weekend were Championship leaders Leeds beating Millwall, Chelsea losing at Brighton and Southampton ousted by Burnley.
One of the big talking points was the Harry Maguire”offside” winner for Man United against Leicester. With no VAR at the FA Cup, you simply have to see it to believe it.
These scenes 🥹 pic.twitter.com/HvpwSPFCFO
— Plymouth Argyle FC (@Argyle) February 9, 2025
ANOTHER ONE-POINT WIN ON THE BIG STAGE
The gap in world rugby has closed, despite the fact the Springboks are ranked No1 and back-to-back world champions. What is becoming undeniable is that on any given day one of the top sides can beat the other.
At the 2023 Rugby World Cup, the Boks lost to Ireland in the pool stages and then beat France, England and New Zealand by one point in successive games.
That one-point margin raised its head again in the latest round of Six Nations games when England snatched a late 26-25 win over France at Twickenham.
I still maintain that a bounce of the ball separates the Boks, Ireland and France and that England and New Zealand are on a level slightly under that trio, with Argentina, Scotland and Australia below that and then daylight to the rest.
EAGLES SOAR TO LIFT SUPERBOWL
To quote Sky News: “Celebrities including Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, Sir Paul McCartney and Bradley Cooper were out in force for the Super Bowl as the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 and Donald Trump made history by becoming the first sitting US president to attend a Super Bowl.”
On the field, the feelgood story was the Eagles’ Jordan Mailata, an Australian who arrived in the USA having given up on the dream of making it as a rugby league player. The Eagles led 24-0 at half-time in a one-sided match.
SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS!
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) February 10, 2025
THIS ONE’S FOR YOU PHILLY! pic.twitter.com/tWxrzozMQU
CURTAIN COMES DOWN ON SUCCESSFUL SA20
MI Cape Town blew away Sunrisers Eastern Cape in a one-sided Betway SA20 final at the Wanderers, winning by 76 runs after deciding to bat first and posting 181 in their 20 overs.
MI Cape Town had topped the round-robin table after 10 matches and ultimately won 10 of the 12 games they played in, which showed they were the best team and deserve every plaudit. Overall, player of the tournament was Marco Jansen, highest run-scorer was Lhuan-dre Pretorius, highest wicket-taker was Jansen.
Significantly for this format, Dewald Brewis hit the most sixes and had the highest batting strike-rate. It was a wildly entertaining last month of action in the third installment of this SA20 competition, and puts it well on the way to being the most successful T20 franchise event outside of the Indian Premier League.
SUNDOWNS PROVE TOO CLINICAL FOR PIRATES
Orlando Pirates are now nine points behind Sundowns at the top of the PSL table, and still licking their wounds after a 4-1 beating at Loftus.
We’re now halfway through the league season but they can start tying the blue and yellow ribbons to the trophy – that’s if they’re ever been taken off from last season.
The stats suggested a much closer match that the scoreboard says: Pirates had 61% possession and made 437 passes to Sundowns’ 279 and had 11 shots compared to Sundowns’ 12.
The difference was that Sundowns were on target with nine of them and Pirates one and Lucas Ribeiro’s Costa’s double took him clear at the top of the season’s scoring charts with nine.
ALSO WORTH A SHOUT …
South Africa’s men hockey team finished third at the Indoor World Cup, with Mustapha Cassiem being named player of the tournament …
The Bulls edged the Stormers by one point (what did we say about the one-pointers?) 33-32 to stay third and 10th on the United Rugby Championship table respectively …
South Africa’s Proteas went down 61-55 to hosts England in the Vitality Nations Cup final …
Louis Clark and Catherine van Rensburg won the men’s and women’s events at the Midmar Mile.
