Dricus Du Plessis Defends Title in Nose-Busting Win Over Sean Strickland at UFC 312

In a rivalry full of close rounds and tiny adjustments, Dricus Du Plessis once again proved he has Sean Strickland’s number.

The main event of UFC 312 on Saturday in Sydney featured du Plessis (23-2) and Strickland (29-7) in a rematch of their meeting just over a year ago at UFC 297, where the South African captured the title in a closely contested split decision. With five rounds’ worth of first-hand experience about one another’s skills, the champ and challenger picked up more or less where they left off in their first go-round last year, with a few added wrinkles. Du Plessis was notably aggressive in the early going, working to keep Strickland from getting into a rhythm and chaining his formidable jab by throwing out a variety of techniques including body punches and spinning back kicks. “Tarzan,” for his part, stuck with what brought him to the pinnacle of the division in the first place: crisp, patient boxing defined by the relentless jab and well-timed right crosses. Much like their first meeting, Round 1 was a close affair, with Strickland’s disciplined defense and conservative offense keeping either fighter from truly putting a stamp on things. Round 2 saw du Plessis achieve some separation, as he tagged the challenger with body kicks that drew a reaction, as well as a sharp jab of his own that bloodied Strickland’s mouth. “Stillknocks” kept his foot on the gas—relatively speaking—in the middle round, landing leg kicks, numerous body punches and a couple of noteworthy head shots, including a spinning elbow that might have leveled a lesser foe.

With the rematch shaping up as a near replay of the first fight, the true turning point came in the fourth round. Du Plessis caught Strickland with a flush punch that smashed the American’s nose. Strickland reacted instantly, retreating and checking his beak with his hand as blood spurted. Du Plessis might have turned up the pressure and looked for the finish, but incredibly, the challenger regained his composure, caught Du Plessis on the counter and left no question that he was still an active participant in the fight. Nonetheless, he may have been down four rounds to none when he came out for the final frame. Strickland went to work with a certain urgency, but with a methodical style ill-equipped to finish fights on demand, the result was similar to what had gone before. Du Plessis, for his part, did nothing to sit on a lead, but instead marched forward and threw punches and kicks with near-abandon as if it was still anyone’s fight.

When the final horn sounded, the rivals embraced in a show of respectful camaraderie, but there was no question who had won the fight, and the official scorecards in favor of the champ (50-45, 50-45, 49-46) bore that out. The win brought Du Plessis’ mark in the promotion to a spotless 9-0, while Strickland fell to 16-7 in the Octagon. The champ has plenty of interesting contenders lining up for their shots, including Nassourdine Imavov, Khamzat Chimaev and perhaps Caio Borralho, if he can get past Jared Cannonier next month; Strickland now faces an uphill battle back to the title picture for as long as the South African is on top.

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Zhang Dominates Suarez

In the co-main event, Weili Zhang entered the cage as the betting underdog to Tatiana Suarez despite being one of the UFC’s most dominant champs and a top pound-for-pound fighter, and as a certain basketball great once famously said, she appeared to take that personally. No matter how one felt about the betting line, the prevailing wisdom held that Suarez’s wrestling represented a threat unlike any the champ had yet faced, and that indeed proved to be the case—for about half a round.

Once the fight began, Suarez promptly answered one of the key questions about the matchup, as she used a body lock and trip to take the champ down with ease in the first 30 seconds, landing in side control. Zhang remained calm and patient, regaining guard, then returning to her feet with about a minute left. Suarez promptly grabbed a guillotine choke, wrapped Zhang in her guard and went to her back, looking for the finish. Zhang fought her way out quickly and set up shop in the challenger’s guard but could not land any offense of note and was forced to defend another front choke before the round expired. The second round saw Suarez go for another early takedown, and she managed to haul Zhang to the canvas, but Zhang instantly bucked her over and swept to top position. Suarez escaped to her feet before Zhang truly capitalized, but Zhang tagged her with several clean punches and kicks before Suarez track her down again. By the later part of Round 2, Suarez appeared to be showing the effects of her own wrestling-heavy approach, and Zhang took the fatigued challenger down, where she applied methodical ground-and-pound until the horn. As she returned to her corner, Suarez sported a severe cut on her right knee, caused by a collision with the fence during a scramble.

Zhang began pouring it on in the middle frame, rebuffing Suarez’s tired-looking attempts at closing the distance and punishing her with big punches. Less than two minutes in, Zhang scored with a blistering right cross that buckled the challenger’s knees and elicited a desperation takedown attempt. As her opponent flagged, Zhang remained ice-cold and composed, forcing the wrestler to come forward and meeting her with hard, accurate counters. Only the champ’s deliberate approach and Suarez’s innate grit ensured that the championship rounds would be needed, but the momentum was unquestionably with Zhang as the two women came out for Round 4. It was more of the same, however, with the only real surprise coming when Zhang was the one to bring the fight to the floor. Once there, “Magnum” was every bit as methodical on the ground as she had been on the feet, applying relentless pressure and threatening with a head-and-arm choke in the middle of the round. Suarez’s own considerable grappling chops and 15 minutes plus worth of sweat allowed her to escape, but that was the lone bright spot in a complete whitewashing of a round.

As the champ and challenger came out for the final frame, it was apparent to all that the challenger was hopelessly behind on the scorecards, and to her credit, Suarez came out aggressively and tried yet again to bring the action to the ground, but Zhang was both an immovable object and an unstoppable force. Zhang easily defended Suarez’s takedown, then initiated her own, which she secured with the aid of a desperate guillotine attempt by Suarez. Once there, she settled into the American’s full guard, applied heavy top pressure and spent the balance of the fight chipping away with short, hard ground strikes.

The official decision figured to be a mere formality, quantifying yet another dominant performance by one of the sport’s most dominant fighters, and the judges held up their end of the bargain, turning in scores of 49-46, 49-46 and 49-45 in favor of “Magnum.” With the victory, her third successful defense since regaining the belt a little over two years ago, Zhang moved to 10-2 in the UFC and bolstered her case to be called the greatest strawweight of all time. Suarez fell to 7-1 in the UFC as her long-delayed, long-anticipated shot at gold ended in misery.

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Teixeira Melts Tafa

He may be the tallest fighter in the UFC, but Talisson Teixeira (8-0) made short work of his debut assignment, dropping Justin Tafa (7-5, 1 NC) with a withering volley of clinch strikes in the first round of their heavyweight tilt. The 6-foot-8 “Xicao” enjoyed massive advantages in height and reach over the squat Kiwi-Australian but ended up doing his nastiest work in close quarters. After shoving “Bad Man” to the fence, Teixeira uncorked a brutal knee to the gut, followed by a level elbow that landed squarely on the bridge of Tafa’s nose. Tafa collapsed to all fours, with Teixeira giving him another glancing knee to the head on the way down. Referee Rich Mitchell was on the spot for the stoppage, pulling the towering Brazilian off of his foe at just 35 seconds of Round 1. Tafa protested as he rose, but the result went down as a TKO win for Teixeira, who moved to 1-0 in the UFC while keeping intact his 100% finish rate; none of his fights have needed a second round, and only one has made it past the midpoint of Round 1. Meanwhile, Tafa’s Octagon tally fell to 4-5 with one no contest as he has dropped consecutive bouts for the first time since 2021.

Crute, Bellato Slug Their Way to Majority Draw

Jimmy Crute (12-4-2) and Rodolfo Bellato (12-2-1) threw everything but the kitchen sink at one another in a light heavyweight scrap characterized by huge swings in momentum—and a casual approach towards striking defense. A tentative start nearly turned to a quick finish when Bellato missed on a takedown attempt and pulled Crute directly into mount. “The Brute” moved to Bellato’s back and tried to apply a rear-naked choke, but did not have quite the angle to finish. Bellato managed to regain half guard but the onslaught continued, as Crute stayed all over the Brazilian through a series of scrambles, applying heavy punches and elbows anytime Bellato stopped moving. “Trator” finally managed to sweep and escape to his feet with 30 seconds to go, but any relief was short-lived. Crute dropped Bellato with a right hand that froze him where he stood. Bellato crumpled in slow motion and Crute swarmed with punches as referee Marc Goddard looked on closely. Bellato survived to hear the horn, but it earned him only a temporary reprieve. Crute came out for Round 2 and immediately went back to work, rocking Bellato with punches. The Brazilian regained his wits and composure, however, and as Round 2 wore on, he began to score with low kicks and punches upstairs. With under two minutes to go, the fatigued-looking Crute regrouped, smashing Bellato with uppercuts and a mean right hook. Bellato responded in kind, and the middle round expired with the two slugging away. Both men were visibly tired entering the final round, but neither gave an inch, leading to a grueling slugfest in the middle of the cage, with haymakers going both ways, aided on Bellato’s side by continued investment in low kicks. Crute interrupted things with a takedown, but Bellato sprang back to his feet right away and the brawl resumed. At the midpoint of Round 3, Bellato timed Crute for an easy takedown of his own but let him back up moments later with no damage done. The Sydney crowd made its appreciation heard in the final 30 seconds, and the light heavyweight sluggers responded by trading until the final horn. The fight felt close in the moment, and the judges appeared to agree, turning in a majority draw via scores of 29-27 Crute and 28-28 twice.

Matthews Boxes Up Prado

In the pay-per-view opener, Jake Matthews (21-7) gave onetime lightweight prospect Francisco Prado (12-3) a rude welcome to the welterweight division, winning nearly every moment of their 15-minute affair. Matthews was sharper fighter in the early going, especially on the feet, where he leveraged his height and reach advantages and frustrated the burly Argentinian with a crisp jab, some well-timed body kicks and solid footwork. Prado managed some offense late in the round, grounding Matthews with a hard takedown from an inside trip, but with under a minute left to work, he did not manage to capitalize with any significant offense. In Round 2, “The Celtic Kid” picked up right where he left off, keeping his opponent on the outside, where Prado looked little like the aggressive scrapper he had been at 155 pounds. As the horn sounded on an easy round for the Australian, Prado was bleeding heavily from a cut above the hairline, received during an inadvertent clash of heads early in the frame. The cutman did a brilliant job staunching the wound between rounds, but metaphorically speaking, there was no stopping the bleeding: Matthews continued putting on a quiet clinic in counterpunching and distance management. On the occasions that Prado tried to make something happen to turn the momentum, Matthews made him pay, as he did around the midpoint of the round when he caught an onrushing Prado with a hard right uppercut that stopped him in his tracks. Matthews closed things out by initiating the clinch late, pressing his shorter foe into the cage and landing a series of short strikes including a hard right knee at the horn. The judges had an easy task and responded properly with 30-27 cards across the board. The victory gave Matthews his first win streak in nearly five years and brought his tally to 14-7 since joining the UFC as a teenage prospect over a decade ago. In defeat, Prado fell to 1-3 in the Octagon and 0-1 in his new division.