The middleweight master Dricus du Plessis exceeded Sean Strickland for 25 minutes on his way to a unanimous decision gain (50-45, 50-45, 49-46) in the main event for UFC 312 in Sydney, Australia, on Saturday evening (Sunday in Australia).
The fight was never competitive as Strickland (29-7 MMA) stayed on his back foot for almost the entire duration. Unlike their first meeting 13 months ago, both men were less anxious about aggressiveness and more about technicality. A punch from Du Plessis (23-2 MMA) in the fourth round opened a horrible cut on the Bridge of Strickland’s nose, the probable highlight of the fight.
You Plessis was gracious in the victory and apologize for the fans for not securing a predicted knockout finish from Thursday’s press conference.
“Sean (Strickland) is an absolute animal and deserves all the heart (showed),” you said Plessis after the victory.
Meanwhile, Strickland was blunt.
“He kicked my (expletive) justice and square,” Strickland said. “Props to him.”
The Co-Main event saw Weili Zhang successfully defending its straw weight title against Tatiana Suarez through unanimous decision-49-46, 49-46, 49-45-with relative ease. After a slow opening round, Zhang Suarez prevented us from using his potent wrestling attack to secure several submission attempts, but to no avail.
Zhang thanked the Australian audience and gave Suarez credit for a tough fight. But in the end, Zhang was satisfied with his performance.
“Do your best – I don’t care about odds,” Zhang said. “I just focused on myself.”
Nevertheless, it marks another chapter in Zhang’s career (26-3 MMA) that has not seen her taste decline since November 2021. Suarez (11-1 MMA) goes back to the board and suffers from its first loss.
Heavyweight Tallison Teixeira kicked his UFC career in style with a first round of TKO against Justin Tafa, and needed only 35 seconds to end the Australians. TAFA (7-5 MMA) fell below .500 in the UFC, while Teixeira (8-0 MMA) has won seven out of eight fights by KO/TKO.
The second fight saw Jimmy Crute Fight Rodolfo Bellato on Welterweight. While the fight was extremely competitive, with both looking for the goals in the first two rounds, the fight was ruled with a judge, Mark Collett, who made the fight for Crute (12-4-2 MMA) by giving him the first two rounds-28 -28, 29-27, 28-28. The fight marked Cruts second draw in the last three fights, while Bellato (12-2-1 MMA) is still unbeaten in the campaign.
UFC 312’s main card was opened with Jake Matthews who made a unanimous decision against Francisco Prado in a well-to-do attack 30-27, 30-27, 30-27. Matthews (21-7 MMA) has won their last two fights, while Prado (12-3 MMA) fell to 1-3 in the campaign.
-Field level media
