TOPSHOT – South Africa’s Dricus du Plessis fights Sean Strickland of the US (Photo by SAEED … [+] KHAN/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

UFC 312 is a wrap, and we saw at least two dominant performances at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.

Dricus Du Plessis and Weili Zhang put on excellent performances, successfully defending their titles against Sean Strickland and Tatiana Suarez, respectively.

UFC 312 Results: DDP Retains with Relentless Pressure

Du Plessis, the reigning UFC Middleweight Champion, pounded Strickland for five rounds in their rematch, breaking his nose with a huge right hand in the fourth round. The champion prevailed with consistent pressure and landed the more damaging blows.

Strickland showed toughness, but he couldn’t match the champion’s output. The broken nose was the exclamation point on the fight. DDP prevailed via unanimous decision: 50-45, 50-45, and 49-46.

UFC 312 Results: Weili Zhang Silences Doubters

In the co-main event, Weili Zhang silenced the doubters who had pushed Suarez to be a slight favorite ahead of their title fight.

After a rocky first round, where Suarez took the champion down, Weili steamrolled the challenger, nearly stopping her in the third round with a huge right hand.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – FEBRUARY 09: (L-R) Zhang Weili of China punches Tatiana Suarez in the UFC … [+] strawweight championship fight during the UFC 312 event at Qudos Bank Arena on February 09, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

Zuffa LLC

Like Strickland, Suarez showed toughness in defeat, but there was no question she was outclassed, suffering the first loss of her professional career. Neither champion factored into the bonus money.

Heavyweight Tallison Teixeira earned a Performance of the Night bonus for his first-round KO win over Justin Tafa.

Quillan Salkilld won the other Performance of the Night bonus for his 19-second KO win over Anshul Jubli.

The Fight of the Night bonus went to Rongzhu and Kody Steele for their brawl.

Here is a look at all of the results from UFC 312, along with highlights of the finishes.

UFC 312 Results

Main Card

• (C) Dricus Du Plessis def. Sean Strickland via unanimous decision (50-45×2, 49-46) – UFC Middleweight Championship
• (C) Weili Zhang def. Tatiana Suarez via unanimous decision (49-46×2, 49-45) UFC Women’s Strawweight Championship
• Tallison Teixeira def. Justin Tafa via first-round TKO – Heavyweight
• Jimmy Crute vs. Rodolfo Bellato – Majority Draw (28-28×2, 29-27 Crute) Light Heavyweight
• Jake Matthews def. Francisco Prado via unanimous decision (30-27×3) – Welterweight

Prelims

• Gabriel Santos def. Jack Jenkins via third-round submission (rear-naked choke) – Featherweight
• Tom Nolan def. Viacheslav Borschev via unanimous decision (29-28×2, 30-27) Lightweight
• Wang Cong def. Bruna Brasil via unanimous decision (30-27×3) – Women’s Flyweight
• Aleksandre Topuria def. Colby Thicknesse via unanimous decision (30-27×3) – Bantamweight

Early Prelims

• Jonathan Micallef def. Kevin Jousset via unanimous decision (29-28×3) – Welterweight
• Rongzhu def. Kody Steele via unanimous decision (30-27×3) – Lightweight
• Quillan Salkilld def. Anshul Jubli – Lightweight – TKO – 19 seconds of the first round

Biggest Takeaways From UFC 312

The only fight that makes sense for DDP at this point is Khamzat Chimaev. If he faces and defeats Chimaev, he should move up to light heavyweight to challenge Alex Pereira or Magomed Ankalaev—whoever holds the 205-pound title at that time.

Weili Zhang is in a different situation. Her domination at strawweight is complete—she has already run through the division. It makes sense for her to move up to flyweight to face the winner of the yet-to-be-announced clash between Valentina Shevchenko and Manon Fiorot.

Shevchenko vs. Weili is the fight most fans would want to see, but we’ll see if Shevchenko can get past Fiorot first and retain her flyweight title.

Lastly, given the lack of depth in the UFC’s heavyweight division, Tallison Teixeira deserves to leapfrog Don’Tale Mayes and Jhonata Diniz to claim the No. 14 spot in the rankings. He’s a perfect 8-0, and he just finished Justin Tafa as definitively as anyone has in his career.