UFC 312: Two Title Fights Announced for Massive Card in Australia

The UFC has announced two huge title fights for the upcoming UFC 312 Pay Per View in February 2025.

UFC 312 will be headlined by the rematch between UFC Middleweight Champion Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland and the co-main event sees UFC Strawweight Champion Weili Zhang defend her title against Tatiana Suarez.

Strickland and Du Plessis will meet again after their very close fight in January this year where Du Plessis dethroned the champion Strickland to bring the belt back to South Africa. Fans have been debating the outcome of that fight with some fans still believing that Strickland won the fight which has helped the controversial American gain his rematch in Australia.

The middleweight champion recently defended his title back in August at UFC 305 against Israel Adesanya. The champ submitted Adesanya in the 4th round to retain his title. Strickland also picked up a victory against Paulo Costa in his recent fight winning via a split decision in the five-round co-main event at UFC 302 back in June.

UFC President Dana White has however received some negative feedback from fans on the booking of this fight as many believe that Khamzat Chimaev deserved the title shot ahead of Strickland. This comes after Chimaev dominated former UFC Middleweight Champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 308 as he submitted Whittaker in the first round.

After this dominating win by Chimaev, fans headed to social media and expressed their interest to see the fight made between the Du Plessis and Chimaev. However the UFC have stuck by Strickland and handed him the opportunity in February although fans can assume that whoever wins the fight at UFC 312, Chimaev will be waiting for the winner.

Zhang will be looking to extend her five fight winning streak in the co-main event as she defends her title against a dangerous contender in Suarez. Zhang has had a dominant run in the Strawweight division with this fight being her third defence of the belt. The champion has cleared out most of the division with Suarez being one of the only contenders in the division that Zhang has not beaten.

Suarez was originally scheduled to face Virna Jandiroba at UFC 310 last weekend, however the fight was cancelled with no explanation from the UFC as it appears they wanted to re book her with the shot at the title in February. Suarez has been the number one contender for a while but injuries have kept her sidelined for most of this year and fans are hoping she is able to stay healthy in the run up to this title fight.

This Fight is expected to be a potential fight of the night at UFC 312 with Suarez being one of the only fighters in the straweight division who can match the skillset of Zhang.