Matchmaking The Winners & Losers From The UFC 312 Title Fights

Published by Paul Browne on February 9, 2025

What’s Next For The Big Players From UFC 312?

The lineup for Saturday’s UFC 312 pay-per-view event drew plenty of criticism from fans in the lead up to the event, and with good reason.

The organization’s tenured New Zealand/Australia-bred stars (Alexander Volkanovski, Dan Hooker, Robert Whittaker, Israel Adesanya) were nowhere to be seen and the card was filled with plenty of unfamiliar names from down under, such as Jack Jenkins and Colby Thicknesse.

While the widespread disapproval of the overall standard of the fight card was warranted, there were at least 2 championship bouts at the top of the bill to add some real quality to the event.

Let’s take a look at what matchups could be in store for the winners and losers of the title fights at UFC 312.

Main Event Winner: Dricus Du Plessis

Following his lopsided 25-minute decision win over Sean Strickland in Saturday’s main event, Dricus Du Plessis (23-2 MMA, 9-0 UFC) is edging ever closer to being one of the most decorated champions in UFC middleweight history.

The win over Strickland was his second successful title defense at 185 lbs, just one less then both Robert Whittaker and Chris Weidman managed during their title reigns.

While he may not be as aesthetically pleasing to watch as the GOATs of the division (Anderson Silva and Israel Adesanya), there’s no doubting now that the South African is an elite fighter after 4 successive wins against former champions (Whittaker, Adesanya, Strickland x2).

He spoke after the win over Strickland of his ambition to fight Alex Pereira, but admits that he must first face the standout contender at 185 lbs. “(Pereira’s) such a legend in this sport to me already” Du Plessis told reporters at the post-fight presser, “that it would be amazing to beat him for my legacy. I want to be the greatest to ever do this. But Khamzat (Chimaev) is next. Khamzat is next. I want to make sure that this belt, the middleweight title, that there’s no question that I’m the GOAT of the middleweight division”.

Fight to make: Dricus Du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev

Main Event Loser: Sean Strickland

All the talk from the Strickland camp in the lead up to UFC 312 centred around the need for more urgency, more assertiveness and more damage in order to improve upon the split decision loss he suffered at the hands of Du Plessis in January of last year.

What we got instead was a more tepid, even less effective performance from the former champion. In the corner between rounds, coach Eric Nicksick grew more frustrated as the fight progressed, pleading for Strickland (29-7 MMA, 16-7 UFC) to stamp his authority on the fight, but those calls fell on deaf ears.

Not only did Strickland fail to improve upon his output or his effectiveness from their meeting at UFC 297 last year, he actually landed less impactful strikes this time around.

Given that he had promised fans a “bloodbath” on Saturday night before delivering yet another underwhelming performance, it’s unlikely that we’ll see his name anywhere the title conversation for a while, but a rematch against the man who lost in the main event at UFC Saudi Arabia a week ago could be a fight that excites the fanbase.

In what was considered a massive upset at the time, Strickland beat Israel Adesanya to win the middleweight strap at UFC 293 back in September of 2023, and with both men now licking their wounds and eliminated from the title picture, another fight between the pair could be on the cards.

Fight to make: Sean Strickland vs. Israel Adesanya

Co-Main Event Winner: Zhang Weili

What more can be said about Zhang Weili at this point? The superlatives are beginning to run dry following another sensational performance by the Chinese star in the co-main event slot in Sydney.

Weili (26-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) defended her strawweight title for the third time as she frustrated and dominated the previously unbeaten Tatiana Suarez over 5 rounds and with a resume packed with wins over champions such as Jessica Andrade, Joanna Jędrzejczyk and Carla Esparza, she is inching ever closer to having cleared out the 115 lb division.

In fact, the only top-5-ranked fighter she hasn’t beaten is Virna Jandiroba, who is scheduled to face Yan Xiaonan at UFC 314 in April. and given that Xiaonan bounced back from her loss to the champ with an excellent performance at UFC Macao in November, it would be safe to assume that whoever comes out on top of that upcoming fight will be next in line for a shot at Weili’s belt.

Fight to make: Zhang Weili vs. winner of Virna Jandiroba/Yan Xiaonan

Co-Main Event Loser: Tatiana Suarez

It’s difficult to see where Tatiana Suarez goes from here. Despite getting Zhang Weili to the canvas in the opening round on Saturday, she struggled to mount any sort of credible offense, and spent the following 4 rounds trying (and failing) to implement her much-heralded wrestling game on the champion.

If a title fight ends controversially or is won by the narrowest of margins on the judge’s scorecards then the loser can sometimes be in line for an immediate rematch. When someone is dominated in the way that Suarez (10-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) was in Sydney however, the road back to the top can seem never-ending.

Cosidering that Suarez’s career has been plagued with injury and health issues, the likelihood of her embarking on the type of active stretch that would be needed to get her back into contention is slim.

So we could be into ‘fun fight’ territory for the 34-year-old. And what would be more fun than watching Tatiana Suarez take on Mackenzie Dern to find out just who the most dangerous grappler in women’s MMA is?

Fight to make: Tatiana Suarez vs. Mackenzie Dern