Dricus Du Plessis is the king of middleweights.
The first time Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis fought, the bout was an extremely close encounter that some argued Sean Strickland won. But UFC 312 was a different beast. This wasn’t an outright squash as Strickland put up a fair fight, but the reigning UFC Middleweight Champion outclassed the California native in all five rounds.
Plessis has now won nine fights in a row. He stands behind Anderson Silva and Israel Adesanya with the most consecutive wins in the 185-pound division. But that doesn’t mean much to Plessis as there’s another fight he wants to win before proclaiming that he’s the GOAT of the middleweight division: Khamzat Chimaev. The UFC Middleweight Champion made it clear that he wants a super fight against Alex Pereira, but he understands that he needs to go through the undefeated Khamzat first before trying to challenge for the light heavyweight title.
“Khamzat’s first,” du Plessis said during the post fight media scrum. “I said [to Pereira], ‘Please beat Ankalaev.’ No hate against Ankalaev; I just want to beat Alex Pereira. It’s nothing personal against Ankalaev, it’s just Pereira. He’s such a legend in this sport to me already that it would be amazing to beat him for my legacy. I want to be the greatest to ever do this. But Khamzat 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.”
That fight hasn’t been confirmed yet, but given that Khamzat is coming off a strong victory over Robert Whittaker, it would be shocking if he doesn’t get a crack at the middleweight title.
Zhang Weili silenced doubters on Saturday by ending Tatiana Suarez’s undefeated streak. There was some concern early on as Suarez put some heat on the strawweight champion, but Weili adjusted her game and got a unanimous decision victory over Suarez.
As far as super matches are concerned, Weili has her eye on the current flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko. Dana White stated in the media scrum that it's a possibility. Given that Zhang has nearly wiped out the strawweight division, a super fight between two of the best women on the UFC roster isn’t too far off. Unless Rose Namajunas decides that she wants to go back down to fighting in the 115-pound division.
Nevertheless, UFC 312 was another great night of MMA action and it’s caused some excitement over the future of the UFC. Check out the fight results below:
Main Card
Dricus Du Plessis def. Sean Strickland by unanimous decision
Zhang Weili def. Tatiana Suarez by unanimous decision Tallison Teixeira def. Justin Tafa by KO (elbow), 0:35, Round 1
Jimmy Crute drew with Rodolfo Bellato by majority decision Jake Matthews def. Francisco Prado by unanimous decision
Preliminary Card
Gabriel Santos def. Jack Jenkins by submission (rear-naked choke), 2:06, Round 3
Tom Nolan def. Viacheslav Borshchev by unanimous decision Wang Cong def. Bruna Brasil by unanimous decision
Aleksandre Topuria def. Colby Thicknesse by unanimous decision
Early Preliminary Card
Rongzhu def. Kody Steele by unanimous decision
Jonathan Micallef def. Kevin Jousset by unanimous decision
Quillan Salkilld def. Anshul Jubli by KO (punch), 0:19, Round 1