Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight titleholder, Dricus Du Plessis, will defend his 185-pound strap against former division champion, Sean Strickland, atop the upcoming UFC 312 pay-per-view (PPV) card this February in Sydney.
Disappointed fight fans who wanted to see Du Plessis battle undefeated middleweight menace Khamzat Chimaev are not alone. Turns out “Stillknocks” was also hoping to score a five-round showdown against “Borz,” but matchmakers had other ideas.
I guess there were too many unanswered questions.
“This time they won’t call it a robbery, they’ll call it attempted murder,” Du Plessis wrote on Twitter. “Just for clarification, I preferred the Khamzat fight but the rematch is a fight most wanted before Khamzat vs Whittaker. I’m not unhappy with the UFC’s decision, like I said I’ll fight the man fans think is the next best guy. He was promised the fight, so Strickland it is.”
Strickland opened as the slight betting underdog.
Chimaev improved to 14-0 by obliterating former middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker, in the UFC 308 co-main event last October in Abu Dhabi, marking his ninth first-round finish and pushing the 30 year-old “Borz” to No. 3 in the 185-pound rankings.
UFC 312 will also feature the strawweight title fight pitting current 115-pound champion, Zhang Weili, opposite undefeated division phenom Tatiana Suarez. Elsewhere on the card, local hero Justin Tafa collides with Brazilian heavyweight hurter Tallison Teixeira.