UFC312 in Sydney, Australia was the UFC’s seventh visit to Australia, the last being UFC293 in September 2023.
It was held in the Sydney SuperDome which was used in the 2000 Summer Olympics.
From the 12 fights on the card, eight went the distance. There were three stoppages, including one submission and one extremely rare majority draw.
TOP PERFORMER: ZHANG WEILI
Although Weili has lost twice to Rose Namajunas and had two gruelling fights with Joanna Jedrzejczyk. This was supposed to be one of Weili’s toughest tests in her UFC career. Some even made the unbeaten Tatiana Suarez the favourite.
As preposterous as that was to me, Suarez had shown unbelievable warrior like spirit to battle cancer, and two near career ending injuries to stay undefeated and fight her way to a title fight.
However, Weili showed all her exceptional qualities in the fight. From being taken down in the first minute to fighting her way up. Rocking Suarez several times to dominating the last few rounds, taking Suarez down and snuffing out any threat or danger.
TOP PERFORMER 2: TALLISON TEIXEIRA
As UFC debut’a go, Teixeira couldn’t have asked for any better. An unknown in the UFC, the public was not quite sure what they were getting but he made them aware very quickly.
After having his original debut cancelled in December, he must have been itching to get in the Octagon. Coming into his UFC debut with a record of 8-0 and only one going the distance, his opponent Justin Tafa should have been wary.
However, Teixeira didn’t give him a chance and wasted no time as he backed his opponent up on the cage put in a hard knee, then a heavy elbow to drop Tafa, the followed up with another blow to end the fight in just 35 seconds.
Honourable Mentions
Quillan Salkilld opened the UFC312 card in explosive fashion to mark an impressive debut against his Indian opponent Anshul Jubli. It took just 19 seconds to end the fight, with a superb, arrow like overhand right that sent Jubli crashing to the canvas. The ref the quickly jumped in to stop the fight despite Jubli’s protests.
Dricus Du Plessis retained his middleweight title in a rematch against Sean Strickland. Although the fight was not a great one, Du Plessis showed his exceptional mma skills to stay one step ahead of his opponent throughout, with his forward pressure, boxing ability, striking, defence and impressive gas tank to pitch a shut out in a dominant title defence.
Ron Zhu treated the crowd to an exciting victory and was made to work for it in a fight of the night performance against Kody Steele. The Road to UFC season 2 winner, in his second UFC fight had to show all his tenacity and fighting abilities as Steele never gave up, but in a back and forth fight, Zhu proved to be too good
