UFC 312 adds Dricus du Plessis vs Sean Strickland II and Weili Zhang vs Tatiana Suarez
UFC 312 just added two epic title bouts to the lineup, a middleweight rematch and a long awaited strawweight showdown.
It appears no. 1 ranked UFC strawweight contender Tatiana Suarez (10-0) will finally be getting a title shot, as it was just announced the first of these two title fights will be her facing Weili Zhang (25-3) for the UFC strawweight championship at UFC 312 in a co-headline slot.
UFC 312 is to go down on February 9, 2025, live from the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.
Suarez has long been regarded as one of, if not even the best female fighter in the world at 115 lbs, the only thing holding her back being a multitude of injuries and health complications she’s had during her career. Suarez was expected to make an Olympic run in 2012, though her aspirations to compete were crushed courtesy of a neck injury she suffered in preparation.
Since then, her injury bug hasn’t left, she’s had a number of long layoffs throughout her career as well as many cancelled bouts that helped extend some of those layoffs. One of those was expected to be her facing no. 3 ranked Virna Jandiroba this weekend at UFC 310, a bout that was cancelled due to more health issues suffered by the undefeated contender.
At 34 years of age, the UFC decided to grant Suarez a title shot next instead of rebooking the Jandiroba bout. Many of us fans had predicted she would’ve fought for a belt long ago, so it’s fitting to see her finally get a crack at it. What’s unfortunate about it is she hasn’t fought since August of 2023.
Since joining the UFC’s roster following her claim of The Ultimate Fighter 23 trophy Suarez’ best wins come over former UFC flyweight champion Alexa Grasso (rear naked choke), former two-time UFC strawweight champion Carla Esparza (TKO), and another former UFC strawweight champion in Jessica Andrade (guillotine choke), improving her to 15-0 overall in MMA competition (2-0 amateur, 3-0 TUF).
Weili Zhang on the other hand is currently the most dominant active female fighter in the sport, only having lost to Rose Namajunas since joining the promotion in 2018 with impressive wins over Jessica Andrade (TKO), Joanna Jedrzejczyk twice (SD, KO), Carla Esparza (rear naked choke), all of which are former strawweight champions, and then Amanda Lemos (UD) and Yan Xiaonan (UD) in her latest two appearances, this fight expected to be her third straight title defense.
Then we have the UFC 312 main event
Dricus du Plessis (22-2) just defeated former champion Sean Strickland (29-6) earlier this year in January at UFC 297 to claim the UFC middleweight championship in a razor thin split decision that some believed he won, and some believed Strickland won.
Since then, each man has fought a single time, Strickland defeating former title challenger Paulo Costa (SD) in June at UFC 302, and du Plessis making the first defense of his title against former two-time UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya (neck crank) in August at UFC 305.
A lot of us fans were speculating as to who would get the next title shot at 185 lbs, given many believed Strickland won the first fight and should still be champion, not to mention having fought and won since.
On the other side of the coin Khamzat Chimaev just stormed right through former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker (neck crank) in October, improving to 14-0 in doing so.
But it appears the UFC decided to go with the rematch first and either book Chimaev against the winner or find him another fight in the meantime.
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