Day: 9. Februar 2025

Weili Zhang currently has no peers when it comes to the strawweight division.

Advertisement

“Magnum” proved that yet again in the UFC 312 co-headliner, as she dominated Tatiana Suarez en route to a clear-cut unanimous decision triumph in Sydney on Saturday night. Heading into the bout, Suarez was tabbed as a favorite by oddsmakers in large part due to her wrestling prowess. Someone forget to tell Zhang, as she stuffed 14 of her opponent’s 15 takedowns while also outstriking Suarez by a considerable margin on the feet.

To hear her tell it, the Chinese standout will never grow tired of cleaning out her division — perhaps because there’s always more to learn.

“I think the biggest opponent to me is myself, so [even] if I stay in strawweight, if I fight different styles of opponent, I can still learn a lot from that,” Zhang said. “Eventually, to improve myself, that’s my ultimate goal. I see all my opponents as my teachers. I will learn from them and just make my…

In the moments after closing the book on his rivalry with Sean Strickland for good, Dricus Du Plessis grabbed the microphone and stared across the Octagon.

Advertisement

“Is there no one else?” he yelled. “Is there no one else?”

The message was clear: The reigning middleweight champion hadn’t forgotten about Alex Pereira’s callout following his victory over Israel Adesanya last year. Since Pereira was in Strickland’s corner in the UFC 312 main event in Sydney on Saturday night, the timing couldn’t have been better.

Despite that intriguing bit of theater, Du Plessis realizes there’s a natural order to things, and that means clearing out the remaining challenges in his own division. That includes a future showdown with Khamzat Chimaev, who is the No. 1 contender in waiting following his brutal submission of Robert Whittaker this past August. Pereira, meanwhile, has business of his own to attend to — a UFC 313 title defense against Magomed Ankalaev.

“I have t…

Khamzat Chimaev has an ongoing million rubles (approximately $10,000) challenge at his gym.

Advertisement

The middleweight contender claims he hasn’t been submitted for a long time, even in practice. While he admittedly offers some vulnerable positions while training with youngsters, Chimaev takes it to another level during serious sessions. “Borz” has an open challenge offering a million rubles to anyone who can submit him in the gym.

Chimaev also said that his teammate Abubakar Vagaev is the one who has come the closest to submitting him in recent times. The Chechen-born Swede was in Vagaev’s corner when he dethroned Albert Tumenov via unanimous decision to win the welterweight title at ACA 183 on Saturday.

“Anyone who submits me during training gets a million rubles from me,” Chimaev told media at the post-fight press conference after ACA 183 via Home of Fight). “It hasn’t happened in a long time. When I’m fooling around with young guys, I give up my ne…

It was a night for fresh faces to shine when it came to post-fight bonuses at UFC 312.

That included towering newcomer Tallison Teixeira, who took home a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” check for making short work of Justin Tafa in a featured heavyweight affair at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney on Saturday night. The 6-foot-8 Teixeira stunned his foe with a knee to the body and an elbow to the face, bringing an abrupt end to their bout just 35 seconds into Round 1.

Meanwhile, an even quicker finish propelled Quillan Salkilld to a $50,000 “Peformance of the Night” bonus in the opening fight of the evening. The Aussie needed just 19 seconds to wallop Anshul Jubli with a right hand behind the ear in their lightweight encounter, getting his UFC career off to a memorable start in process.

Finally, Zhu Rong and Kody Steele garnered “Fight of the Night” honors and $50,000 apiece for a spirited preliminary lightweight slugfest. The combatants collaborated on a “Rou…