There are two big title bouts taking place on Saturday, Feb. 8 at UFC 312 including Zhang Weili defending the Women’s Strawweight Title against Tatiana Suarez and Driscus Du Plessis taking the Middleweight Title into a bout against Sean Strickland at Quodas Bank Arena in Sydney Olympic Park, Australia.
The fight card is scheduled to start at 10 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on ESPN+ PPV.
Fans interested in even more UFC content can find everything they want on ESPN+. In addition to having exclusive access to UFC pay-per-view events, it also offers on-demand replays of previous UFC events and original programing.
Strickland and Du Plessis first met in January 2024 in a bout that had a split decision victory for Du Plessis. His next title defense came in August against Israel Adesanya, a fight that ended in a fourth round submission.
Suarez is 11-0 and has a slight reach advantage against Weili, who is 25-3 on her career and a slight underdog in this bout.
Main Event: Driscus Du Plessis (c) vs. Sean Strickland – Middleweight Title Bout
Notable Undercard Fights:
- Zhang Weili (c) vs. Tatiana Suarez – Women’s Strawweight Title Bout
- Justin Tafa vs. Tallison Teixeira – Heavyweight
- Jimmy Crute vs. Rodolfo Bellato – Light Heavyweight
- Jake Matthews vs. Francisco Prado – Welterweight
When: Saturday, Feb. 8 at 10 p.m. EST
Where: Quodas Bank Arena in Sydney Olympic Park, Australia
Stream: ESPN+
What is ESPN+?
ESPN+ is a one-stop shop for content from almost every single sport. In addition to on-demand replays of games across all sports shown on the ESPN and Disney family of networks, there is also exclusive access to select college football games, NHL games, soccer matches, UFC programs and the entire 30 for 30 catalogue. Additionally, there is ESPN+ exclusive original programing like NFL Primetime, Dana White’s Contender Series and The Breakdown with Peyton and Belichick.
RELATED CONTENT:
Du Plessis puts middleweight title on the line in rematch with Strickland in UFC 312
By MARK ANDERSON AP Sports Writer
Dricus Du Plessis disagrees that his previous fight with Sean Strickland should have been a split decision, but acknowledged he had to earn the victory that night just more than a year ago for the middleweight belt.
Now they meet again in UFC 312 on Sunday in Sydney, and Du Plessis doesn’t want to leave the outcome in the judges’ hands, comparing a split decision to a coin flip that could easily go the other way.
“We got lucky with the split decision,” the champion said. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here now. I am very happy that they made this fight. I was asking for this fight.”
In the co-main event, China’s Zhang Weili (25-3) will defend her strawweight championship against top-ranked challenger Tatiana Suarez (11-0) of Rancho Cucamonga, California. Zhang has won her past three title defenses, two by unanimous decision and the other by second-round submission.
This is the second title defense for the 31-year-old Du Plessis (22-2), a -210 favorite at BetMGM Sportsbook. He defeated Israel Adesanya with a fourth-round submission Aug. 17 in Perth, Australia.
Strickland (29-6) gets his shot not only at revenge, but at getting back his belt. However, in a wide-ranging news conference that covered little about the fight, Strickland, the top-ranked challenger, didn’t endear himself Down Under by questioning Australia’s laws and hurling other insults.
“I would like to consider Australians as English white trash and even some Irish,” Strickland said. “As an American white trash, I feel like I have a lot in common with you (expletive).”
The Daily Telegraph put a large photo of Strickland on its back page Thursday with the headline begging someone to “knock this guy out.”
Du Plessis will give it his best against Strickland, who turns 34 on Feb. 27. But if the first meeting was any indication, an early submission is unlikely. That’s the only time since joining the UFC in 2020 that Du Plessis has gone into the fifth round.
“Getting to that fifth round in a war like that proved to myself that I can do it,” Du Plessis said. “It’s easy to say. It’s easy to do it in the fight camp, in the training, but doing it in the octagon is a bit different against a world-class fighter.”
He said to not expect a replay of that fight, that both sides will make adjustments.
The lead-up to the first meeting was much more tense and personal, and both fighters even lobbed punches at each other at another UFC event a month earlier.
Du Plessis was much more complimentary of his opponent this week, and Strickland said nothing especially disparaging of his competitor.
“I think Strickland is the best middleweight in the world right now behind me, and he deserves to be here,” Du Plessis said. “I know he’s an incredible, incredible fighter. He’s so good defensively. He’s tough. He’s hard to hit, and when you hit him, it doesn’t have that effect as on a normal guy. This man is an apex predator, so this is the toughest fight of my life coming up, and I’m ready for that because I’m an apex predator and he’s in my area right now.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
