Lyle Fitzsimmons@@fitzbitzFeatured Columnist IIIFebruary 8, 2025

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3. Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
4. There are UFC cards for which the combat sports world has been clamoring.
5. And then there was this one.
6. The 12-bout show at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia was topped by a pair of championship matches–at middleweight for the main event and strawweight in its final run-up–that generated legit interest. Still, the remaining 10 were the sorts of lower-tier encounters involving unranked fighters that only a hardcore fan could love.
7. Familiar rivals Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland met for the second time in 385 days atop a five-bout main card packaged and sold as UFC 312. Du Plessis won by split decision and snatched Strickland’s 185-pound belt the first time around at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto and had defended once since, by submission over Israel Adesanya.
8. The 115-pound title tilt pitted second-time divisional standard-bearer Zhang Weili against unbeaten top-ranked contender Tatiana Suarez. Weili initially held the belt from 2019 to 2021, then regained it in 2022 and had since defended twice, while Suarez had gone 7-0 and finished five fights since arriving to the promotion in 2016.
9. B/R’s combat team was in place to take it all in and deliver a real-time list of the show’s definitive winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up and drop a thought or two of your own in the app comments section.
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12. Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
13. Once again, Sean Strickland was Sean Strickland.
14. And once again, when it came to Dricus Du Plessis, it wasn’t enough.
15. Beaten by split decision the first time around to lose his middleweight title belt, the perpetually chatty American was again out-hustled and out-landed by his South African rival–this time by even more definitive margins–on the way to a unanimous loss in the main-event rematch.
16. The scores came perilously close to a shutout, with just one judge giving the beaten challenger one round while the other two saw it 5-0 for Du Plessis.
17. B/R agreed with the majority and saw it 50-45 for the champion, who scored the fight’s lone takedown, landed 129 strikes to his foe’s 92, and left Strickland’s face a bloody mess after apparently breaking the former title-holder’s nose with a right hand in the fourth.
18. It was Du Plessis’ ninth straight win at middleweight, moving him to third in the division’s history behind only Anderson Silva and Israel Adesanya.
19. “(Du Plessis) is a bad mother f–ker,” Strickland said. “He kicked my a– fair and square.”
20. Indeed, each round looked similar to its predecessor as Du Plessis was more aggressive, more busy, and more effective with his strikes.
21. Strickland landed the occasional hard jab and intermittent right hands, but was chastised upon returning to his corner each round for not being active enough. And when the nose gave way in the fourth, it was a done deal competitively.
22. “To knock him out is next to impossible,” Du Plessis said. “I wanted a submission or a knockout or an absolute domination of a five-rounder. That’s what I got.”
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25. Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
26. It’s official. Zhang Weili is one of those athletes who thrives when doubted.
27. Though she arrived as a two-time strawweight champion riding a four-fight win streak, the dynamic Chinese woman had been reduced to a betting underdog by the time she was introduced for her co-main title defense against unbeaten American Tatiana Suarez.
28. And for maybe the first five minutes, the wagering line looked almost feasible.
29. But once the champion bit down on her mouthpiece, seized the initiative and began doing what she’d done across five previous title-fight victories, it looked almost laughable.
30. Weili was not only her typical dominant self on the feet, she gradually took over Suarez’s wheelhouse on the mat, too, and violently grinded her way to a 25-minute rout that left her top-ranked opponent in a swollen, bloody and exhausted heap.
31. “It’s the ferocity. That’s just the difference here,” analyst Michael Bisping said. “She’s unbelievable. She’s incredible. What a performance from the champion.”
32. The official scores of 49-46, 49-46 and 49-45 were academic alongside statistics that showed her defending 14 of 15 takedown attempts, landing 251 of 300 strike attempts, and racking up nearly 11 full minutes of positional control time.
33. “Zhang Weili is looking like the greatest 115-pound fighter of all time,” blow-by-blow man Jon Anik said. “This is the type of performance that lays the foundation to try and become a simultaneous two-division champion.”
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36. Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
37. Sometimes, fighters stopped abruptly have a legitimate beef with the referee.
38. And then there’s Justin Tafa.
39. The Australian big man complained loudly to Rich Mitchell when the official stepped in to end Tafa’s main-card heavyweight bout with Tallison Teixeira after just 35 seconds, but replay after replay showed that the right call was made.
40. Tafa successfully defended a takedown attempt from his opponent, who stands a gargantuan 6’7″ with an 83-inch reach, by remaining upright and backing up against the cage.

UFC @ufc

Xicao bringing the POWER <br><br>Tallison Teixeira gets the TKO just 35 seconds into his UFC debut! <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/UFC312?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#UFC312</a> <a href=”https://t.co/x6F0kJsPha”>pic.twitter.com/x6F0kJsPha</a>

1. But the Brazilian continued his aggression with a knee to Tafa’s belly that was followed by a hard right elbow that landed squarely on his opponent’s nose. Tafa immediately crumbled to his knees as he turned away and covered his head with his arms in a turtle-like posture.
2. The surrender-like optics prompted Mitchell to intervene at that point, lifting Teixeira to a pristine 8-0 as a pro and handing Tafa his fifth loss in nine UFC outings.
3. “I’ve been working really hard. I went in there, and fortunately for me, it was my day,” Teixeira said. “I know he’s a tough guy. But I knew one thing, he was gonna lower his hands, and that’s when I went in there.”
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6. Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
7. The damage came in slow motion.
8. Though Jake Matthews didn’t land the sort of strikes that left welterweight foe Francisco Prado semi-conscious or sent him sprawling across the cage, his perpetual impact was clear.
9. First, Prado’s cheeks turned red from abrasions. Then, his nose began leaking from a nick along its bridge. And finally, a hard clash of heads yielded a wider gash on the hairline.
10. Put them all together and it spelled success for the Australian veteran, who walked away with a competitive but clear-cut unanimous decision in his 21st UFC appearance.
11. All three judges had it 30-27 for Matthews.
12. Prado, just 12 when Matthews made his octagonal debut, is now 1-3 with the promotion.
13. “I’ll soak it in here now, but wherever the octagon is in the world, that’s my home,” said Matthews, who called for a match with fellow veteran Neil Magny. “I want to go for the kill. I want to start getting finishes.”
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16. Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
17. It was a big night for Australia and Tom Nolan revelled in the occasion.
18. The 24-year-old has a freakish frame–6’3″ with a 73-inch reach–for a lightweight and augments predictable stand-up advantages from distance with surprising skill on the ground.
19. And he needed every tool against a rugged Viacheslav Borshchev.
20. “He brought the best out of me,” Nolan said, moments after his unanimous decision win–by scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27–was announced. “Every single day I woke up with fear in my stomach because of that guy. He’s as tough as anyone.”
21. B/R agreed with the majority and had it 29-28 for the winner.
22. Nolan ticked up to 9-1 as a pro and 3-1 in the octagon and ultimately tipped the prelim W/L scales for Aussie fighters, who won three times in five opportunities.
23. Also succeeding “Down Under” were Quillan Salkilld and Jonathan Micallef at lightweight and welterweight, respectively. Coming out on the short end were bantamweight Colby Thicknesse, who lost on the cards to Aleksandre Topuria; and Jack Jenkins, who tapped out to a rear-naked choke against Brazilian featherweight Gabriel Santos.
24. Fighters from seven other countries were also involved across the early fights, with China (2-0) and Georgia (1-0) going unbeaten, Brazil (1-1) splitting two and India, France, Russia and the United States losing one apiece.
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27. Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
28. Call it a proxy war, MMA style.
29. Championship rivals Ilia Topuria and Alex Volkanovski were in opposite corners again, but rather than exchanging strikes for a second time they were sharing counsel with respective bantamweight charges Aleksandre Topuria and the aforementioned Colby Thicknesse.
30. The 135-pounders were making UFC debuts and it was Topuria, the 29-year-old brother of the featherweight king, who got off to a winning start with a deserved, if not thrilling, decision.
31. The judges had it 30-27 across the board, slightly wider than B/R’s 29-28 nod.

Delinquent MMA @DelinquentMMA

Aleksandre Topuria with a nasty suplex <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/UFC312?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#UFC312</a> | <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/UFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#UFC</a> <a href=”https://t.co/WDIUj0g2PM”>pic.twitter.com/WDIUj0g2PM</a>

1. More methodical than his belted sibling, Topuria waded through Thicknesse’s frenetic movement in the opening round and landed a hard right hand that sent the Australian stumbling backward toward the fence. Topuria later punctuated the exchange with a suplex that sent Thicknesse over his head before he landed hard on his back and shoulders.
2. Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria cordially shook hands after the decision was announced.
3. “Colby showed me a great fight. He’s a great rival,” Aleksandre Topuria said. “When I prepare for a fight I know that strategy is good but I know that one punch can change everything. We had to be prepared for every scenario. I wanted to take him into deep water.”
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6. Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
7. Well, so much for successful business trips.
8. Las Vegas-based lightweight Kody Steele was the only American on the prelim card and he packed up his jiu-jitsu black belt for the long journey to Sydney after a curtain-raising Contender Series win four months ago.
9. But once he arrived, things didn’t go quite as planned.
10. The 29-year-old got Rongzhu to the ground 90 seconds into the fight, but almost nothing went right after his 31-fight veteran opponent got back to his feet and dominated with high-level striking on the way to a clear decision victory.
11. All three judges had it 30-27, which matched the B/R scorecard.
12. A former training partner of Steele who’s now working with the uber-decorated City Kickboxing team, Rongzhu consistently tagged his familiar rival with hard left hooks, dropped him with a jab, and drew a torrent of blood by the time the two embraced at the final horn.
13. It was Steele’s first professional loss and made him the second big favorite–he arrived as a -370 selection–to lose on the three-bout early prelim show, following Frenchman Kevin Jousset’s loss to Australia’s unheralded Micallef.
14. First fight. First controversy.
15. The fans in Sydney were certainly happy to see Salkilld, a Perth-based lightweight, spectacularly win his octagonal debut over interloper Anshul Jubli, but the post-fight revelry couldn’t drown out the protests coming from Jubli and his team.
16. There was no debating that Salkilld landed a hard right hand that landed on Jubli’s ear and dropped him to the mat, but Jubli was already starting to pull himself up to a defensive position by the time referee Jim Perdios swooped in after just 19 seconds.
17. In fact, the beaten man didn’t let go of Salkilld’s leg even as Perdios waved things off, and he continued to plead his case to the official as Salkilld strutted in celebration.
18. It was the second-fastest KO ever recorded in a lightweight debut.
19. “There are no words for it,” Salkilld said. “The perfect ending to my debut in Sydney. A dream come true.”
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22. Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
23. Dricus Du Plessis def. Sean Strickland by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 49-46)
24. Zhang Weili def. Tatiana Suarez by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-45)
25. Tallison Teixeira def. Justin Tafa by KO (elbow), 0:35, Round 1
26. Jimmy Crute drew with Rodolfo Bellato by majority decision (29-27, 28-28, 28-28)
27. Jake Matthews def. Francisco Prado by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
28. Gabriel Santos def. Jack Jenkins by submission (rear-naked choke), 2:06, Round 3
29. Tom Nolan def. Viacheslav Borshchev by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
30. Wang Cong def. Bruna Brasil by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
31. Aleksandre Topuria def. Colby Thicknesse by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
32. Rongzhu def. Kody Steele by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
33. Jonathan Micallef def. Kevin Jousset by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
34. Quillan Salkilld def. Anshul Jubli by KO (punch), 0:19, Round 1