Du Plessis beats Strickland to retain middleweight title at UFC 312

By Canadian Press on February 8, 2025.

SYDNEY (AP) — Dricus Du Plessis defended his middleweight belt with a dominant unanimous points decision over a bloodied Sean Strickland at UFC 312 in Sydney on Sunday.

Du Plessis (23-2) had said before the fight he didn’t want to leave the outcome in the judges’ hands after his previous fight with Strickland (29-7) ended with a split decision for the South African almost a year ago — the only time since joining the UFC in 2020 the 31-year-old had needed to go into the fifth round.

But Sunday’s fight, scheduled for mid-afternoon in Australia’s largest city to suit a Saturday night prime-time audience on the U.S. west coast, was always comfortably in Du Plessis’ favor as the judges scored it 50-45, 50-45, 49-46.

The earlier rounds belonged to Du Plessis as his low kicks went to work on Strickland’s legs, while the American used his jab to try and find a chink in the South African’s defense.

The key moment in a mostly defensive fight came early in the fourth round when a big right hand from the South African champion got through Strickland’s defense and appeared to break the American’s nose.

With blood streaming from his nose Strickland tried to make it to the bell without further damage, but Du Plessis closed in looking for an early finish.

Strickland survived the round but the damage had been one and Du Plessis did enough in the final round to ensure the American wasn’t going to steal it.

This was the second title defense for Du Plessis, after he beat Israel Adesanya by a fourth-round submission in August in Perth, Australia.

Zhang Weili defends strawweight title

In the co-main event, China’s Zhang Weili defended her strawweight championship with an unanimous points decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-45) against top-ranked challenger Tatiana Suarez of the U.S.

Zhang (26-3) was dominant throughout, while Suarez (11-1) appeared hampered by a nasty gash to her knee from hitting the base of the octagon fence in the middle rounds.

Zhang has now won her past four title defenses, three by unanimous decision and the other by second-round submission.

Also, Tallison Teixeira (8-0) beat Justin Tafa (7-5) by a first-round TKO just 35 seconds into the first round of their heavyweight fight.

Jimmy Crute (12-4-2) and Rodolfo Bellato’s (12-2-1) light heavyweight fight ended in a majority draw, while welterweight Jake Matthews (21-7) of Australia defeated Francisco Prado (12-3) by unanimous decision.

___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

The Associated Press