The UFC 312 pay-per-view recently concluded, and MMA News has you covered with the post-fight press conference in Sydney. The Qudos Bank Arena played host to Octagon action on tonight, as the mixed martial arts leader continued its PPV schedule for 2025 with a lineup that featured two championships and a host of local names. […]
The UFC 312 pay-per-view recently concluded, and MMA News has you covered with the post-fight press conference in Sydney.
The Qudos Bank Arena played host to Octagon action on tonight, as the mixed martial arts leader continued its PPV schedule for 2025 with a lineup that featured two championships and a host of local names.
Of note were victories for Dricus Du Plessis, Zhang Weili, Jake Matthews and Tallison Teixeira.
And before attention turns to UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs. Rodrigues at the Apex next weekend, there remains some business to attend to backstage at UFC 312.
Shortly after the main event’s ending, Dana White will appear in front of the media to reveal the recipients of the Fight of the Night and Performance of the Night bonuses before answering questions. The victorious fighters from UFC 312 will also take queries from the press in reaction to their performances.
With that said, see below for a live stream of the UFC 312 post-fight press conference via the UFC’s official YouTube channel, commencing at 1:15 AM ET.
Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis were involved in a chaotic brawl in the audience during a UFC event…
Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis were involved in a chaotic brawl in the audience during a UFC event last year. The altercation, which saw Strickland leap over seats to attack Du Plessis, has drawn widespread attention. First, they met in the audience, then a fight for the middleweight title, now at UFC 312, they are meeting once again.
Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis Clash in Audience Brawl
The incident unfolded when Strickland, seated two rows ahead of Dricus du Plessis, turned to mock his rival before physically attacking him. The melee was quickly broken up by security and police, but not before it left onlookers stunned. UFC President Dana White later admitted responsibility for seating the fighters too close to each other, calling it a “mistake” and stating, “This is the fight business; things like this happen.”
In a recent interview, Du Plessis revealed that both Dana White and UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell approached him after the incident, urging him to press charges against Strickland. However, the South African fighter dismissed the suggestion. Speaking on the OverDog podcast, he explained:
“Dana and Hunter actually came to where we were seated, and there was police and security around us and they were like ‘that was assault, 100% you have the right to press charges now against Sean Strickland’. Me being from South Africa I was like ‘what? come on’. That looked like a good old Friday night [to me].”
The brawl has added fuel to an already fiery rivalry between the two fighters. Strickland has been vocal about his disdain for Du Plessis, while Du Plessis has criticized Strickland’s emotional instability. Both fighters have promised an all-out war when they step into the Octagon at UFC 312 in Sydney.
UFC 312 takes place tonight from the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia and MMA News has you covered with all the results and highlights! In the main event, Dricus Du Plessis will put his middleweight title on the line in a rematch with former champ Sean Strickland. While in the co-main event, strawweight champ Zhang Weili will face Tatiana […]
UFC 312 takes place tonight from the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia and MMA News has you covered with all the results and highlights!
In the main event, Dricus Du Plessis will put his middleweight title on the line in a rematch with former champ Sean Strickland. While in the co-main event, strawweight champ Zhang Weili will face Tatiana Suarez.
Elsewhere on the main card, Justin Tafa will face Tallison Teixeira at heavyweight; Jimmy Crute and Rodolfo Bellato will clash at light heavyweight; and Jake Matthews will face Francisco Prado in a welterweight matchup.
There was one fight cancelation at the weigh-ins, with the flyweight bout between Nyamjargal Tumendemberel and HyunSung Park scrapped due to weight management issues experienced by the former.
Make sure to catch all the UFC 312 results and highlights as they happen below!
Main Card: 10PM ET On PPV
Middleweight Championship: Dricus Du Plessis vs. Sean Strickland
Women’s Strawweight Championship: Zhang Weili vs. Tatiana Suarez
Heavyweight: Justin Tafa vs. Tallison Teixeira
Light Heavyweight: Jimmy Crute vs. Rodolfo Bellato
Welterweight: Jake Matthews vs. Francisco Prado
Preliminary Card: 8PM ET On (ESPNews/Disney+)
Featherweight: Jack Jenkins vs. Gabriel Santos
Lightweight: Tom Nolan vs. Viacheslav Borshchev
Women’s Flyweight: Wang Cong vs. Bruna Brasil
Bantamweight: Colby Thicknesse vs. Aleksandre Topuria
UFC 312 took place tonight from the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia and MMA News has you covered with all the results and highlights! In the main event, Dricus Du Plessis put his middleweight title on the line in a rematch with former champ Sean Strickland. While in the co-main event, strawweight champ Zhang Weili faced Tatiana Suarez. UFC […]
UFC 312 took place tonight from the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia and MMA News has you covered with all the results and highlights!
In the main event, Dricus Du Plessis put his middleweight title on the line in a rematch with former champ Sean Strickland. While in the co-main event, strawweight champ Zhang Weili faced Tatiana Suarez.
UFC 312 Results: Main Card
Middleweight Championship: Dricus Du Plessis def. Sean Strickland via unanimous decision (50-45×2, 49-46)
Women’s Strawweight Championship: Zhang Weili vs. Tatiana Suarez via unanimous decision (49-46×2, 49-45)
Heavyweight: Tallison Teixeira def. Justin Tafa via TKO: R1, 0.35
Light Heavyweight: Jimmy Crute vs. Rodolfo Bellato ends in a majority draw (29-27, 28-28×2)
Welterweight: Jake Matthews def. Francisco Prado via unanimous decision (30-27×3)
Preliminary Card
Featherweight: Gabriel Santos def. Jack Jenkins via submission: R3, 2.06
Lightweight: Tom Nolan def. Viacheslav Borshchev via unanimous decision (29-28×2, 30-27)
Women’s Flyweight: Wang Cong def. Bruna Brasil via unanimous decision (30-27×3)
Bantamweight: Aleksandre Topuria def. Colby Thicknesse via unanimous decision (30-27×3)
Early Preliminary Card
Lightweight: Rongzhu def. Kody Steele via unanimous decision (30-27×3)
Welterweight: Jonathan Micallef def. Kevin Jousset via unanimous decision (29-28×3)
Lightweight: Quillan Salkilld def. Anshul Jubli via TKO: R1, 0.19
Preliminary CardHighlights
Quillan Salkilld def. Anshul Jubli
Quillan Salkilld took just 19 seconds to TKO Anshul Jubli in their lightweight bout.
UFC Middleweight Champion Dricus Du Plessis has had a long and amusing path to becoming an MMA Fighter. Considering the several twists and turns, it’s a storyline that you’d see in TV shows or movies. The South African did not start professional MMA until the age of 19. However, the build-up to becoming a modern-day […]
UFC Middleweight Champion Dricus Du Plessis has had a long and amusing path to becoming an MMA Fighter. Considering the several twists and turns, it’s a storyline that you’d see in TV shows or movies.
The South African did not start professional MMA until the age of 19. However, the build-up to becoming a modern-day gladiator began when he was just five. The 31-year-old trained different combat arts including judo, wrestling and kickboxing, and finally ended up becoming a fighter for a rising MMA promotion in South Africa.
However, Du Plessis’ life as an athlete really changed when he entered the UFC in October 2020. “Stillknocks” seized this opportunity and went on to become a champion within just seven fights in the promotion. He is set to defend his title for the second time now, against former champion and rival Sean Strickland this Saturday in Sydney, Australia, at UFC 312.
The champ recently sat down with UFC legend Demetrious Johnson for an episode of MightyCast, where he broke down the journey of turning into a mixed martial artist after early dreams of being a Rugby pro.
“I started fighting professionally at 19, I did Judo since I was five years old. I started Judo, yeah, when I was five, I did that for a couple of years, maybe six years. Then, I wrestled for, but I didn’t wrestle very long just, primary school. Like, from the age of 10 to 12, 13 and then at 14, I started with K1 kickboxing.”
Lack of a wrestling and MMA culture in his school didn’t stop Du Plessis from exploring combat sports. However, he was very close to choosing Rugby as his careeer after completing his secondary education.
“We don’t have any of those things in our school system. We don’t have a college wrestling, we don’t have that. You have to do this extracurricular activity after school, so in school, I played rugby, I played I wanted to become a professional rugby player. I played rugby up until I was 19. I played rugby my whole life but, you know kickboxing K1 kickboxing wrestling, judo, all of those were things that that you basically did privately after school. Your parents would take you and I got classes so we moved that’s why we moved, away from where I used to stay with, where I had really good Judo coach and then there was a wrestling club in the new place we stayed and I went to join the wrestling club, did it for two years three years I wasn’t into it.”
Amidst the constant dillema of which career to choose, Du Plessis thanked legendary Croatian martial artist Mirko Filipovic for making him fall in love with kickboxing. Although the veteran’s record doesn’t look the best on paper, he easily had one of the most memorable runs ever in PRIDE, knocking out opponents left and right and with his head kicks.
“And then, with the kickboxing,I just fell in love with that I watched Mirko Cro Cop videos on YouTube and I thought that’s the coolest thing ever. Till this day. one of the the greatest kickboxing. kickboxing K1 fighters in the world to me. He’s somebody that got me into this and yeah, I mean, I became national champion, two years later in kickboxing, and at 18, I became a wacker junior world champion. K1 world champion, I fought in Slovakia. You know, obviously, I loved fighting and I wanted to make a career out of this but you know in kickboxing, I mean, there’s no way to earn a living, not from South Africa. And then the local scene was booming in the EFC here in South Africa with MMA. We have a very good EFC Africa now, worldwide scene, and yeah,19. I started fighting professional MMA and that’s how it all started.”
It isn’t surprising at all that “Cro Cop” inspired Du Plessis to be a fighter becauses anyone who’s seen him fight in PRIDE knows what the UFC middlweight champion is talking about.
Dana White recently reviewed the bone-chilling mentality of Dricus Du Plessis that spread like wildfire in MMA circles. Unlike many fans who found the champion’s quotes cold and intimidating, the UFC President admitted that this mentality is exactly what makes fighters champions in the most competitive MMA organization in the world. The UFC middleweight champion […]
Dana White recently reviewed the bone-chilling mentality of Dricus Du Plessis that spread like wildfire in MMA circles. Unlike many fans who found the champion’s quotes cold and intimidating, the UFC President admitted that this mentality is exactly what makes fighters champions in the most competitive MMA organization in the world.
The UFC middleweight champion is all set to defend his title for the second time this Saturday night in a grudge-fueled rematch against former champ Sean Strickland. In an interview with Mark Bouris, the South African made a ruthless admission.
The 31-year-old not only claimed that he’ll be willing to die in the ring to emerge victorious like any other MMA fighter, but he took things further and also confessed to be fine with killing a man in front of his family if needed.
In another interview by Bouris, Dana White had this to say when the host reminded him about Du Plessis’ remarks:
“All of these guys, I mean if you go in and you’re going to stand toe-to-toe for five rounds. And remember, you can punch, kick, knee, elbow, take a shin to the head, all I mean, these people are wired differently than the rest of us. That’s what makes professional fighters and especially in MMA so different as far as humans go.”
White explained that the lack of this killer instinct is why there’s only a few MMA world champions out there. Considering he’s been dealing with such personalities for decades now, he definitely understands them more than an average human.
“There’s this many of them right here, that become world champions and have that type of mindset. They’re not wired like you and I. They’re different, they’re special human beings and yeah, I mean, I think that’s all of their mindset when they go in and fight.”
There is no doubt MMA fighters are modern-day gladiators and “Stillknocks” is clearly a fighter who’s embraced this mindset in the perfect way. He’s calm, composed, and collected outside the Octagon but only wreaks havoc as soon as the time to fight begins.
Unlike the previous outing against Strickland which ended in a razor-close split decision win, Du Plessis aims to resolve the rivalry with a KO victory this time around.
Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis were involved in a chaotic brawl in the audience during a UFC event…
Strickland 