Tag: dricus du plessis

‘Thought He Was Going To War?’ – Fans React As Sean Strickland Gets Nose Broken In Lopsided Loss To Dricus Du Plessis At UFC 312

The first fight between Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland was a close battle that could have fallen either way, ending in a controversial decision for the South African despite UFC CEO Dana White feeling “Tarzan” won the fight. But the rematch between the two was not close at all. Du Plessis took complete control […]

The first fight between Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland was a close battle that could have fallen either way, ending in a controversial decision for the South African despite UFC CEO Dana White feeling “Tarzan” won the fight. But the rematch between the two was not close at all.

Du Plessis took complete control in a lackluster, dominant decision win over Strickland to retain the UFC middleweight championship in the main event of UFC 312.

The opening round saw both men delivering single shots. Despite previous acknowledgement about the risks of close rounds, Strickland tried to use his jab for a lead, but the champ kept distance and strategically landed whenever he saw an opening.

The American landed some strong strikes early in the second round, but “Stillknocks” completely took over the output of that frame from there, seemingly putting the former champion in an early 2-0 hole.

The defending champion continued to take advantage of a lack of activity from the former one during round three. The big moment of the fight, however, happened in the middle of the fourth round when a right hand from Du Plessis connected harshly, breaking Strickland’s nose. Blood poured out as the challenger looked to up his power to get back into the fight.

In spite of nearly getting caught in a guillotine during an unadvised rush in, Du Plessis stayed the course and landed from distance, with his output far exceeding Strickland’s.

The South African nearly swept the scorecards, with two 50-45s and a 49-46 in his favor to keep the gold.

Dricus Du Plessis Retains In Dominant Outing Over Sean Strickland

Du Plessis won the middleweight title in the original fight with Strickland last year at UFC 297 and retained the gold with a submission of Israel Adesanya at UFC 305.

Strickland, meanwhile, defeated Paulo Costa at UFC 302. He had won the middleweight title in upset fashion when he defeated Adesanya at UFC 293 in September 2023.

VIDEO: UFC 312 Post-Fight Press Conference After Dricus Du Plessis, Zhang Weili’s Headline Wins

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.

‘Looked Like a Good Old Friday Night’: Dricus du Plessis Brushes Off Dana White’s Call to Press Charges on Sean Strickland

'Looked Like a Good Old Friday Night': Dricus du Plessis Brushes Off Dana White's Call to Press Charges on Sean StricklandSean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis were involved in a chaotic brawl in the audience during a UFC event…

'Looked Like a Good Old Friday Night': Dricus du Plessis Brushes Off Dana White's Call to Press Charges on Sean Strickland

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.

sean strickland ufc 312 edited

UFC 312: Dricus Du Plessis vs. Sean Strickland 2 Results & Highlights (6PM ET) 

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 

Early Preliminary Card: 6PM ET On ESPN+ 

  • Lightweight: Rongzhu vs. Kody Steele 
  • Welterweight: Kevin Jousset vs. Jonathan Micallef 
  • Lightweight: Quillan Salkilld vs. Anshul Jubli 

UFC 312 Results & Highlights: Dricus Du Plessis Decisions Sean Strickland

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 Card Highlights

Quillan Salkilld def. Anshul Jubli

Quillan Salkilld took just 19 seconds to TKO Anshul Jubli in their lightweight bout.

Gabriel Santos def. Jack Jenkins

In this featherweight bout, Gabriel Santos submitted Jack Jenkins in the third round.

Main Card Highlights

Jake Matthews def. Francisco Prado

In the main card opener, Jake Matthews earned a unanimous decision against Francisco Prado.

Jimmy Crute vs. Rodolfo Bellato ends in majority draw

Tallison Teixeira def. Justin Tafa

Tallison Teixeira took just 35 seconds to TKO Justin Tafa in their heavyweight bout.

Zhang Weili vs. Tatiana Suarez

In the co-main event, Zhang Weili defended her strawweight title with a decision win against Tatiana Suarez.

Dricus Du Plessis def. Sean Strickland

In the main event, Dricus Du Plessis retained his middleweight title with a unanimous decision against Sean Strickland.

‘Coolest Thing Ever’ – Dricus Du Plessis Reveals Fighter Who Got Him Into Fighting Instead Of Rugby

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.