UFC
312 will have a pair of championship bouts at the top of the
bill.
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Dricus Du
Plessis will defend his middleweight crown in a rematch with
Sean
Strickland in the evening’s main event, while Weili Zhang
will face Tatiana
Suarez in a strawweight title bout in the co-headliner. The
pairings were announced during the UFC 310
broadcast on Saturday night.
UFC 312 takes place on Feb. 8 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney,
Australia. The main card will air on pay-per-view via ESPN+.
Du Plessis captured 185-pound gold with a split-decision victory
over Strickland in their first meeting at UFC 297. “Stillknocks”
defended the strap this past August, when he submitted Israel
Adesanya in the fourth round of their main event clash at UFC
307. The 30-year-old South African is 8-0 during his tenure with
the Las Vegas-based promotion.
After falling to Du Plessis, Strickland returned to the win column
with a split verdict against Paulo Costa
at UFC 302 this past June. The 33-year-old Xtreme Couture
representative has won four of his last five outings, a run that
includes an upset of Adesanaya to capture the middleweight title at
UFC 293.
Zhang is on her second reign as UFC strawweight queen. After
submitting Carla
Esparza to regain the belt at UFC 281, “Magnum” has defended
the crown with back-to-back decision triumphs against Amanda
Lemos and Xiaonan Yan.
Her ledger also includes wins over the likes of Joanna
Jedrzejczyk (twice), Jessica
Andrade and Tecia
Pennington.
Suarez, who was supposed to face Virna
Jandiroba at UFC 310, will instead bypass that bout and go
directly to a title shot. The 33-year-old Californian’s promising
career has been derailed by injuries, but she nonetheless owns a
10-0 career mark that includes seven triumphs in UFC. Most
recently, she scored a second-round submission victory against
Andrade in August 2023.