Dricus du Plessis ensured the middleweight title remained in South Africa with a clinical victory over Sean Strickland at UFC 312 at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena.
In what was a rematch of their contentious UFC 297 clash, du Plessis left no doubt this time around, turning in an emphatic striking display to retain the belt via unanimous decision (50-45 x2, 49-46).
Strickland was unable to get any momentum in the striking exchanges, as du Plessis’ variety of attacks continuously scored and, in the fourth round, appeared to break the challenger’s nose.
Following the bout, “Stillknocks”, who improved to 23-2, declared himself a top three pound-for-pound fighter, while Strickland, who is now 29-7, conceded du Plessis “kicked his ass.”
UFC boss Dana White later suggested a bout with Khamzat Chimaev was next up for the champion.
In the co-main event, China’s Zhang Weili proved too good for Tatiana Suarez, delivering a complete mixed martial arts performance to retain the strawweight world championship.
Weili more than matched the credentialed, and previously undefeated, American in the wrestling and was a class above on the feet, claiming a one-sided unanimous-decision victory (49-46 x2, 49-45) to move to 26-3 and earn her sixth win in a world title bout.
Given the dominant nature of her win, and the lack of obvious contenders, White hinted a super-fight with flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko could be on the cards in the future.
At heavyweight Tallison Teixeira improved to 8-0, making an impressive maiden bow in the UFC by stopping Justin Tafa in the first minute, with an elbow in the clinch doing the damage.
Jimmy Crute returned after 18 months and looked to have done enough to earn the win over Rodolfo Bellato, having nearly finished the Brazilian in the first round, unfortunately for the Victorian, two judges had it a draw.
To kick off the main card, Jake Matthews earned back-to-back victories for the first time since 2020, defeating Francisco Prado via unanimous decision on the back of some crisp boxing.
Brazil’s Gabriel Santos claimed a third-round submission victory over Jack Jenkins courtesy of a rear naked choke in the feature prelim.
In a bout which was as much about the corners as it was the UFC debutants in the cage, Aleksandre Topuria, the older brother of featherweight champion Ilia, scored a unanimous-decision victory over Colby Thicknesse, who had former 145lb king Alex Volkanovski as one of his coaches.
To kick off the card, Aussie Quillan Salkilld couldn’t have had a better maiden UFC appearance, knocking out Anshul Jubli just 19 seconds into the first round.
Catch up on all the results below:
UFC 312 full card results
Main Card
- Dricus du Plessis (c) def. Sean Strickland via UD5 (50-45 x2, 49-46)
- Zhang Weili (c) def. Tatiana Suarez via UD5 (49-46 x2, 49-45)
- Tallison Teixeira def. Justin Tafa via TKO1 (0:35)
- Jimmy Crute majority draws Rodolfo Bellato (28-28 x2, 29-27)
- Jake Matthews def. Francisco Prado via UD3 (30-27 x3)
Prelims
- Gabriel Santos def. Jack Jenkins via R3 sub – RNC (2:06)
- Tom Nolan def. Viacheslav Borshchev via UD3 (29-28 x2, 30-27)
- Wang Cong def. Bruna Brasil via UD3 (30-27 x3)
- Aleksandre Topuria def. Colby Thicknesse via UD3 (30-27 x3)
Early Prelims
- Rong Zhu def. Kody Steele via UD3 (30-27 x3)
- Jonathan Micallef def. Kevin Jousset via UD3 (29-28 x3)
- Quillan Salkilld def. Anshul Jubli via TKO1 (0:19)