The Bigger Picture | UFC 312: Du Plessis vs Strickland 2

The South African middleweight champion earned his second consecutive successful title defense on Saturday, out-working former titleholder Sean Strickland in a rematch of their UFC 297 nail-biter where Du Plessis claimed the belt by landing on the happy side of a split decision verdict.

While their second meeting also went to the scorecards, the final decision was never in doubt. Du Plessis dominated the action, landing the more powerful and telling blows throughout the first three rounds before exploding Strickland’s nose with a right hand in the fourth and further distancing himself down the stretch. After claiming the title by the narrowest of margins, the 31-year-old champion has now turned in successive dominant title defenses, putting himself in an interesting position in the process.

Most, including Du Plessis himself, believe Khamzat Chimaev will be next, and while “Borz” is undefeated and back to being the boogeyman of the division after tearing through Robert Whittaker in October, his tiring effort against Kamaru Usman and the fact that consecutive pay-per-view events have ended with unbeaten challengers falling to reigning champions have many wondering if the unconventional Team CIT man has what it takes to continue that trend and hand Chimaev his first loss.

There are going to be some that forever doubt the middleweight champ, unable to see past his “throw whatever comes to mind, technique be damned” approach and his hailing from a team and region that has never previously produced a UFC titleholder. Those things didn’t cause fans and observers to question fighters like Francis Ngannou and Zhang Weili — more on her shortly — but those two undeniably looked the part, while for many, Du Plessis does not.

But with nine straight wins in the UFC and 11 consecutive victories overall, there comes a time where you have to stop wondering how Du Plessis continues to get it done, and just accept that unorthodox as his approach may be, “Stillknocks” is a menace to fight and the best middleweight in the UFC right now.

Additionally, in dispatching Strickland and openly welcoming the opportunity to face Chimaev, it seems like we’re going to get a matchup that lays to rest every last question or doubt we may have about either man, with the victor walking away in a position to potentially dominate the division for the foreseeable future.

That is, unless Nassourdine Imavov has something to say about it.

Welcome to the Pantheon, Weili

During the UFC 312 broadcast, Daniel Cormier opined that Zhang Weili has been the best female fighter in the sport for the last couple of years. Not only do I agree, but I’ll take it a step further: in handily beating Tatiana Suarez, the Chinese strawweight champion elevated herself into the pantheon of all-time greats.

Entering the contest as the underdog, Zhang dealt with Suarez successfully dragging her to the canvas early in the fight and patiently extracted herself from a potentially dangerous guillotine setup to close out the opening round in top position, controlling the challenger on the mat. From there, her confidence only grew with each passing round, each takedown attempt denied with greater ease, each striking exchange that resulted in Suarez eating a powerful shot.

RELATED: Zhang Weili Builds Her Case For G.O.A.T Status 

This was a statement win and a lesson in the importance of experience, both against high level competition and in big moments, as Zhang’s extensive championship resume allowed her to keep things simple and measured, while Suarez was hurried and ultimately swept under by the moment… and the world-class talent standing across from her, smiling.

Zhang has now earned three consecutive successful title defenses since reclaiming the belt in November 2022, and six wins in championship bouts in her career, bringing her level with Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the most in the division’s history.

One of those wins came against “Joanna Champion” in their UFC 248 epic that is sure to land in the Fight Wing of the UFC Hall of Fame at some point in the future. She’s beat two of the three remaining women to hold the strawweight title to kick off each of her reigns, and while she’s 0-2 against Rose Namajunas, the totality of her time in the 115-pound ranks surpasses what Namajunas has been able to achieve.

Zhang is one of the most complete fighters in the sport today, regardless of gender, and her overall success to this point has to put her alongside the likes of Jedrzejczyk, Valentina Shevchenko, Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg and Amanda Nunes in the collection of all-time greats.

WATCH: Zhang Weili  UFC 312 Post-Fight Press Conference

Regardless of where you think she fits in that sextet, it’s high time we acknowledge that Zhang has earned her place in such an exclusive group.

She didn’t just eke out a victory on Saturday night — she beat an undefeated challenger that was favored to get the win, that had never previously lost a round, let alone a fight, and she did it by beating her at her own game.

That’s the kind of thing only all-time greats do.

Welcome to the club, Weili.

The Aussies Are Coming

One of the things Dana White talked about at his post-event media availability was how impressed he was with the emerging crop of talent coming from Australia, and it’s an understandable position to take.

Quillan Salkilld kicked off the show with a 19-second knockout win over Anshul Jubli, and Jonathan Micallef followed it up by out-working Kevin Jousset over 15 minutes to claim victory in his promotional debut, as well. A little later in the prelims, Tom “Big Train” Nolan collected his third straight UFC victory, successfully navigating a matchup with the resilient and relentless Viacheslav Borshchev.

WATCH: How Dana White Turned The UFC Into A Multibillion-Dollar Business

Jake Matthews, the elder statesmen of the night’s Australian contingent at 30 years old, opened the main card with a unanimous decision win over Francisco Prado as well, while Colby Thicknesse gave a solid account of himself in a losing effort on short notice opposite Aleksandre Topuria, and should get every opportunity to show what he can do on a full camp somewhere in the not too distant future.

But it’s not just the UFC 312 athletes that make up the ascending crop of Australian talents.

Jack Della Maddalena is stationed at No. 4 in the welterweight rankings and is poised to face off with former champ Leon Edwards in the main event of the UFC’s annual trip to London next month. Fellow Perth man Steve Erceg challenged for the flyweight title last spring, pushing Alexandre Pantoja to the limit, and is set to take on ex-champ Brandon Moreno in the main event of the UFC’s return to Mexico City the week after Della Maddalena headlines at The O2.

A third Perth native, Cody Haddon, was scheduled to face Topuria on Saturday, but had to withdraw due to a foot injury. A teammate of Salkilld’s, he won his promotional debut last November against Dan Argueta, and is an intriguing name to watch in the bantamweightdivision.

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It’s an impressive collection of ascending talents emerging from the Oceanic nation, but it shouldn’t be a surprise that we’re seeing a wave of fighters from Australia climbing the ranks at the moment. This is what happens as the sport takes root and grows around the globe, and it’s only now that the second and third generation of Aussie talents are starting to garner opportunities on the biggest stage in the sport and make some waves.

We saw it happen with Brazil and Canada, then Russia, the Caucasus region, and China. Now it’s Australia and New Zealand having a moment, and soon, there will be a crush of talent coming from the African continent.

The Aussies aren’t just coming; they’re here, and they’re going to continue to be fun to watch.

Quick Hitters

Tallison Teixeira turned in a pretty memorable promotional debut, closing the distance before burying a knee to the body and an elbow to the face of Justin Tafa, the latter of which sent Australia’s “Bad Man” falling to the canvas, prompting the stoppage.

A member of the DWCS Class of ’24, Teixeira is still green, but he’s gigantic, has an 8-0 record and has yet to see the second round. There is no real way to forecast how his career is going to pan out in the future, but it’s definitely going to be fun to watch the 25-year-old Brazilian grow and develop over the next couple years.

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Gabriel Santos went from looking like he was about to get finished to dominating his fight with Jack Jenkins, turning in an effort that opened a lot of eyes, including Daniel Cormier on the broadcast.

The Chute Boxe Diego Lima product went from getting dropped to controlling things, all in the first round, before neutralizing Jenkins in the second and submitting him in the third. He’s now 2-2 in the UFC, having won back-to-back outings, and a step up in competition is merited after his efforts over the weekend in Sydney.

Wang Cong rebounded from her upset loss to Gabriella Fernandes in November with a unanimous decision win over Bruna Brasil on Saturday’s televised prelims, moving to 7-1 for her career in the process. 

“The Joker” has flashed power and finishing skills in the past, but is still relatively new to MMA and competing at this level, so she’s still working out the kinks. That being said, she has a ton of upside and should get ample opportunity to keep climbing the flyweight ranks after getting things moving in the right direction again.

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Aleksandre Topuria picked up a win his UFC debut on Saturday night, out-hustling short-notice replacement Colby Thicknesse over three rounds. You can see the similarities between Aleksandre and his younger brother, featherweight ruler Ilia Topuria, and it will be interesting to see how he continues to progress now that they’re both competing on the biggest stage in the sport.

One Last Thing

Rongzhu earned an impressive unanimous decision win over Kody Steele on Saturday, getting the better of things throughout the entertaining back-and-forth with the recent Contender Series grad.

The Chinese lightweight is another example of the “Development is Crucial” case I’ve been making in this space for the last couple months, as he’s still only 24 years old, but has clearly improved by leaps and bounds since his first stint on the roster. He’s hooked up with the team at City Kickboxing, and with his insane amount of experience, is the kind of plus athlete that might suddenly put it all together and go on run in the 155-pound ranks.

View Rongzhu's Athlete Profile

It’s easy to want to dismiss competitors that struggle out of the chute, but winning consistently at the UFC level is incredibly difficult, and doing so in your early 20s is even more challenging. He seems to have steadied himself and looked excellent on Saturday, so it’ll be interesting to see what he can do going forward.

And with that, I’m out.

See you again after UFC 313 in March.