South African fighter, Dricus Du Plessis, has defended the UFC Middleweight title following a win by unanimous decision over Sean Strickland at the main event of UFC 312 in Sydney, Australia on Saturday night (Australian Time).
Du Plessis went into the octagon looking to extend his winning streak to nine fights, having overcome Israel Adesanya in August 2024 to defend the title he won off Strickland back in January 2024.
Strickland in the pre-fight talk promised the fans there will be blood and so it was on fight night, except he shed more blood from devastating blows received from the South African to leave Strickland’s nose bloodied.
31-year-old Du Plessis now holds a 23-2 record while Strickland’s record is now 29-7.
Meanwhile, in the co-main event, women’s strawweight champion Zhang Weili (26-3-0) overcame a rough first round and controlled more than 21 minutes of her title defense against No. 1 contender Tatiana Suarez (11-1-0) to earn a unanimous decision to retain her belt.
Zhang has won her past four title defenses, three by unanimous decision and the other by second-round submission. She also ties Joanna Jedrzejczyk for most title fight wins in UFC strawweight history with six wins.
Elsewhere, Tallison Teixeira made his UFC debut by getting a first-round knock-out win over Justin Tafa. That made it eight straight bouts Teixeira has ended in the first round, this one lasting just 35 seconds.