UFC 312: Du Plessis faces Strickland in high-stakes title defense
The next major pay-per-view event on the UFC calendar, UFC 312, is set for Saturday, February 8, 2025.
The card is headlined by a highly anticipated middleweight title rematch, as current champion Dricus du Plessis defends his belt against Sean Strickland, the man he defeated in January 2024 to claim the title, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
In the evening’s co-main event, UFC women’s strawweight titleholder Zhang Weili faces Tatiana Suarez. Below, we look at the betting odds for the Du Plessis vs. Strickland 2 fight and offer our preview, picks, and predictions for the title fight.
Dricus du Plessis (22-2) joined the UFC in October 2020 as a 26-year-old with a 14-2 record. Before he joined the UFC, Du Plessis had won titles with KSW and EFC. He made his debut against Markus Perez on the main card of a UFC Fight Night event in Abu Dhabi. Du Plessis knocked out Perez in the first round. He followed that win with a July 2021 “Performance of the Night” KO win of Trevin Giles.
Those two wins earned him a shot against the ranked veteran Brad Tavares. Du Plessis won that scrap via decision. The victory put him in the top 15 of the division. A December 2022 submission win over Darren Till moved Du Plessis to No. 10 in the division. A TKO win over the No. 5 ranked Derek Brunson followed.
Du Plessis, who was working his way up the rankings, faced a tough test in his next outing when he met the No. 2 ranked Robert Whittaker at UFC 290. Du Plessis continued his rise, knocking out the former UFC champion in the UFC middleweight title eliminator and earning another “Performance of the Night” bonus.
More important than the bonus was the title shot Du Plessis received for that win. He faced then-champion Sean Strickland in January, taking the title from Strickland in a “Fight of the Night” bonus-winning scrap.
Since then, Du Plessis is 1-0 with an August 2024 submission win over former UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya.
Sean Strickland (29-6) joined the UFC in March 2014 after winning the King of the Cage middleweight title and defending that crown four times. His first two fights with the promotion were at 185 pounds, but he dropped to welterweight in 2015 and stayed at that weight until 2018. A motorcycle accident kept Strickland out of the Octagon for over two years. When he returned to action in October 2020, he did so at 185 pounds.
Strickland went 5-0 at middleweight before the UFC booked him against a rising Alex Pereira in July 2022. At the time, Strickland was ranked No. 4 in the division, while Pereira was unranked. Strickland was a -125 favorite over Pereira, who was the +105 underdog. Pereira won that fight, knocking out Strickland in 2:36. A split-decision loss to Jared Cannonier followed for Strickland.
Two wins later, with one of those bouts being at light heavyweight, Strickland found himself booked against then-UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. Strickland entered the contest as the +490 betting underdog to the champ, who was a -675 favorite. Strickland won the title, beating Adesanya by unanimous decision (49-46 x 3). His title reign lasted from September 10, 2023 to January 20, 2024 when Dricus du Plessis defeated him via split decision at UFC 297.
Strickland has fought once since losing his title to Du Plessis, beating Paulo Costa by split decision in June.
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