Biggest Winners (And Loser) From UFC 305 | UFC Betting Sites

UFC 305: Du Plessis v Adesanya — Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

UFC 305 went down last night (Sat., July 17, 2024) inside RAC Arena in Perth, Western Australia, featuring a middleweight title fight that saw Dricus du Plessis submit Israel Adesanya via rear-naked choke to earn his first-ever title defense (highlights here). In the co-main event, Kai Kara-France knocked out hometown favorite, Steve Erceg, in the very first round (see it again here).

Biggest Winner: Dricus Du Plessis

They say you aren’t the champion until you secure your first title defense, so “DDP” can now call himself just that (though he already was), after forcing “The Last Stylebender” to tap in the fourth round. Du Plessis weathered the storm a few times after it seemed Adesanya was finding his groove and connecting on his strikes. Undeterred, “Stillknocks” hung tough, stuck to his game plan and eventually started connecting with his own shots in the fourth round. That allowed him to go to his takedowns and eventually sink in a rear-naked choke on his second attempt. With a huge win over “The Last Stylebender” in his pocket, “DDP” ups his win streak to 10 and has consecutive wins over Adesanya, Sean Strickland and Robert Whittaker, the only man who has the right to boast that accomplishment.

Biggest Winner: Kai Kara-France

In a night full of big winners in a not-so stacked pay-per-view (PPV) event, Kai Kara-France comes out one of the biggest winners because of the impact his victory can have on his career. Coming into his fight against Steve Erceg — who was coming off a title fight loss to flyweight champion, Alexandre Pantoja — Kara-France was on a two-fight losing streak and barely hanging on to his No. 4 ranking. But the Kiwi put the division, and Erceg, on its head by with a massive first-round knockout win, his thirteenth such victory. He puts himself in great position to be in the title conversation or, at the very least, a title eliminator fight next.

Honorable mentions: Carlos Prates and Dan Hooker

Don’t look now, but the welterweight division has a new player in town. Sure, Prates has just two wins so far under the UFC banner, but they have been tremendous outings, earning back-to-back knockout wins over Charlie Radtke, and then, of course, sleeping Li Jingliang with an impressive left hook last night (see it again here). That is now nine straight stoppage wins for “The Nightmare,” who increases his win streak to 10. To top it off, this win came on his birthday, in front of his daughter, and he took home a cool $50,000 in post-fight bonus money. It couldn’t have been a better night for him.

I’m going to keep it real, I didn’t give Hooker (No. 11) much of a chance against Mateusz Gamrot, but “The Hangman” came out like a man possessed and looked like a completely, refreshed fighter. I don’t know if it was all the new tattoos he was sporting, or the year off he had in between this fight, but he looked great and dominated the No. 5 ranked lightweight in the world to win a unanimous decision. That is now three straight wins for Hooker, who will be looking at a huge leap in the rankings come next week.

Biggest Loser: Israel Adesanya and Tai Tuivasa

Adesanya’s championship dreams were once again squashed after du Plessis forced him to tap to a rear-naked choke. It was his second straight defeat, previously coughing up his 185-pound strap to Sean Strickland a year ago. When we include his knockout loss to Alex Pereira at UFC 281, Adesanya is just 1-3 in his last four fights. That’s just not a great mark, which leaves him at a crossroads. He can always try to move back up to light heavyweight, but his arch nemesis, Pereira, is the king there and a title fight won’t be easy to come by. For now, Adesanya will have to go back to the drawing board because this loss hurt.

Look, it wasn’t a terrible performance against Jairzinho Rozenstruik, but the fact remains: Tuivasa has now lost five straight fights, and has been stopped in his last four outings under the UFC banner before going the distance against “Bigi Boy.” The last time he had his hand raised was way back in Feb. 2022 when he knocked out Derrick Lewis, which was part of his five-fight win streak. Where it has gone wrong for the hard-hitting big man is unknown, but something isn’t clicking. Whatever it is, Tuivasa is in a bad way at the moment, and he better fix it in a hurry or he could find himself out of the UFC for good with another lose…assuming this defeat isn’t the one that does him in.

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