UFC 312 Start Time, Full Fight Card Details

TLDR: UFC 312 begins with the “Prelims” undercard at 6:30 p.m. ET and the pay-per-view (PPV) main card at 10 p.m. ET TONIGHT (Sat., Feb. 8, 2025); UFC 312’s PPV main event features a Middleweight championship rematch between Dricus du Plessis vs. Sean Strickland; UFC 312 will stream live online via ESPN+ PPV.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is gearing up to stage its second pay-per-view (PPV) event of 2025, as UFC 312 goes down later TONIGHT (Sat., Feb. 8) inside Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Headlining the ESPN+-streamed event will be Middleweight championship rematch as champion Dricus du Plessis takes on Sean Strickland. In UFC 312’s co-main event, women’s Strawweight champion, Zhang Weili, will defend against Tatiana Suarez.

What’s Hot:

Since April 2023, the Middleweight title changed hands from Alex Pereira to Israel Adesanya to Strickland to du Plessis, who is currently holding the 185-pound strap. Many expected Pereira to have a long reign, but after he coughed it up to “The Last Stylebender,” he sparked a new violent regime at Light Heavyweight, where he still sits at the top. Down at 185 pounds, “DDP” is still ruling the roost and will attempt to secure his second straight title defense against the very man he took it from at UFC 297 in early 2024.

Contrived controversy de damned.

“Stillknocks” has been on quite a run, winning 10 straight fights, including going undefeated (8-0) inside the Octagon, with big wins over Robert Whittaker (watch highlights), Strickland and Adesanya. With a win over Strickland in his back pocket, he has all of the confidence in the world for a repeat performance, but it’s important to note that it was a split decision victory, so it wasn’t exactly dominant.

As for “Tarzan,” since losing the title to “DDP,” he notched a split decision win over Paulo Costa, which UFC officials felt was good enough to get a quick rematch against du Plessis, leaving Khamzat Chimaev out in the cold. Whether he deserves it or not is irrelevant because Strickland will take the opportunity to recapture gold. He has undoubtedly learned from the loss and made improvements in his game to get the revenge he seeks (or not), but it’s not like “Stillknocks” has been sitting content. He, too, has been working and improving and he will come more than prepared to defend at all costs, which I am confident he will do. … more convincingly this time around.

What’s Not:

At Welterweight, Jake Matthews will lock horns with Francisco Prado to kickoff UFC 312’s PPV main card. It’s not a fight you expect to see on major UFC PPV main card; however, here we are. Matthews is coming off a win over Philip Rowe at UFC 302, but is just 3-3 in his last six fights. As for Prado, he is coming off a loss at the hands of Daniel Zellhuber, and is just 1-2 under UFC’s banner, so you can see why some eyebrows were raised when this fight was announced as a PPV-worthy bout.

Original Card Vs. Actual Card:

A Light Heavyweight bout between Jimmy Crute vs. Marcin Prachnio was scrapped from this event after Prachnio withdrew for unknown reasons. He was replaced by former Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA) Light Heavyweight champion, Rodolfo Bellato, who made good on his Octagon debut by knocking out Ihor Potieria in Dec. 2023. That was well over a year ago, so it will be interesting to see if ring rust is a factor here.

In addition, on weigh-in day, Nyamjargal Tumendemberel was forced out of his scheduled fight against Park Hyun-sung as a result of weight management issues.

Injuries:

Stewart Nicoll was forced out of his fight against Rei Tsuruya because of an undisclosed injury and the fight was scrapped altogether. Also, Cody Haddon was forced to bow out of his scheduled fight against Aleksandre Topuria and was ultimately replaced by Colby Thicknesse.

New Blood:

Undefeated Heavyweight prospect, Tallison Teixeira, earned his right to fight under the bright UFC lights thanks to a first round knockout win on Contender Series. In fact, Teixeira has won all of his fights in the first round — six via knockout and one via submission — so all he knows is to get in and get out as quickly as possible with a win. He will face Justin Tafa, a hard-hitting big man who is looking for a win after coming up short against Karl Williams in his last fight. Don’t blink!

Undefeated (7-0) Lightweight contender, Kody Steele, will make his official debut after a stellar outing on Contender Series to take on Rongzhu, who is coming off a knockout loss at the hands of Chris Padilla in his own UFC debut back in Sept. 2024. Steele has five stoppages in seven wins, so he is all about action with the intent of getting a finish.

Topuria — who is the brother of current Featherweight champion, Ilia Topuria — will make his highly-anticipated UFC debut when he takes on the aforementioned Thicknesse, who trains with former 145-pound champion, Alexander Volkanovski. Topuria is 5-1 in his MMA career, but those six fights came in the span of nearly 10 years, so he hasn’t exactly been active. That said, he has stopped all six of his foes, though they aren’t exactly household names. Still, the combat world wants to see if he can follow the path of his famous and dominant brother. As for Thicknesse, he has yet to taste defeat and carries with him a perfect record (7-0) with four first round stoppage victories. It’s a nice little storyline of Team Topuria vs. Team Volkanovski.

After losing his first-ever professional fight back in Feb. 2021, Quillan Salkilld remained positive and proceeded to rack up six straight stoppage wins to earn a spot on Contender Series. After proving victorious there with a unanimous decision win over Gauge Young, he will now face off against Anshul Jubli, who is 7-1, going 1-1 so far under UFC’s banner.

Jonathan Micallef is an established grappler who will make his Octagon debut after wowing Dana White on season eight of Contender Series. He is 7-1 as a professional with six stoppages, three via knockout and three via submission. He will battle Kevin Jousset, who is coming off a knockout loss at the hands of Bryan Battle. Prior to that, he had won five straight.

How The ‘Prelims’ Look:

Now that we have previewed several of the undercard fights featuring newcomers, let’s take a look at the rest of the “Prelims” action, starting with Jack Jenkins facing off against Gabriel Santos in Featherweight action. Jenkins is 3-1 under UFC’s banner, racking up wins against Don Shainis, Jamall Emmers and Herbert Burns. As for Santos, he finally scored his first UFC win after back-to-back losses to start his UFC career, defeating Zha Yi in Sept. 2024. Now, the man they call “Mosquito” hopes to build on that momentum for his first back-to-back win streak inside the Octagon.

Tom Nolan was knocked out in his UFC debut by Nikolas Motta (see it again here), ending the hype he had coming out of Contender Series. He bounced back nicely with two straight wins and will go for lucky No. 3 against Viacheslav Borshchev, who is a very inconsistent 3-3-1 inside the Octagon.

In women’s Flyweight action, Wang Cong will do battle against Bruna Brasil. Cong suffered the first loss of her mixed martial arts (MMA) career against Gabriella Fernandes, who choked her out in Nov. 2024. Prior to that, she had racked up six straight wins, including winning Road To UFC (Season 3). As for Brasil, she is coming off a dominant win over Molly McCann, bringing her UFC record to an even 2-2.

Who Needs A Win Badly:

Crute is winless (0-3-1) in his last four fights under UFC’s banner, so he is in a must-win situation going into his fight against Rodolfo Bellato. Crute has been fighting for UFC for about seven years now, and during that time he has had mixed results. He is 4-4-1 overall, but that simply won’t cut it if he ever wants to make a move toward a ranking spot. At this point, however, he needs a win just to hang on to his spot on UFC’s bloated roster.

Interest Level: 7/10

In the co-main event of the evening, Suarez will finally get her chance at winning UFC gold when she challenges Weili, UFC’s current women’s Strawweight champion. Suarez has been riddled by injuries throughout her career, which has halted her march to the title. She has more than earned her shot, going perfect (7-0) inside the Octagon. That said, those seven wins came in the span of seven years and she hasn’t competed since defeating Jessica Andrade in Aug. 2023. Many have predicted a championship reign for the wrestler, and now she has the chance to show the world why at one point she was labeled the “Female Khabib.”

Suarez will need all her grappling skills to be on point against Zhang, who is currently on a four-fight win streak, which includes two straight title defenses. Suarez will undoubtedly look to utilize her world-class wrestling, and she has the size advantage over the champion. That said, Zhang has taken on all comers, big and small, and has come out on top more often than not. The real question here will be if Zhang can get in and out to be able to use her striking before Suarez gets a hold of her, which will more than likely lead to a trip down to the canvas, where she will be at a disadvantage. This one should be very competitive.

It isn’t the most stacked card — I felt last week’s “Fight Night” event in Saudi Arabia was a bit better — but it should still deliver some good action. Strickland — like him or not — always comes to fight, while du Plessis has shown he is truly one of the best fighters in the world today.

Enjoy the fights!

Full UFC 312 Fight Card:

UFC 312 Main Event on ESPN+ PPV:

185 lbs.: UFC Middleweight Champion Dricus Du Plessis vs. Sean Strickland 2

UFC 312 Main Card on ESPN+ PPV (10 p.m. ET):

115 lbs.: UFC Strawweight Champion Zhang Weili vs. Tatiana Suarez
265 lbs.: Justin Tafa vs. Tallison Teixeira
205 lbs.: Jimmy Crute vs. Rodolfo Bellato
170 lbs.: Jake Matthews vs. Francisco Prado

UFC 312 Prelims Card on ESPN2/ESPN+ (8 p.m. ET):

145 lbs.: Jack Jenkins vs. Gabriel Santos
155 lbs.: Tom Nolan vs. Viacheslav Borshchev
125 lbs.: Wang Cong vs. Bruna Brasil
135 lbs.: Aleksandre Topuria vs. Colby Thicknesse
125 lbs.: Hyun Sung Park vs. N. Tumendemberel — CANCELED (details here)

UFC 312 Early Prelims Card on ESPN+ (6:30 p.m. ET):

155 lbs.: Kody Steele vs. Rongzhu
170 lbs.: Jonathan Micallef vs. Kevin Jousset
155 lbs.: Quillan Salkilld vs. Anshul Jubli

*Fight card, bout order and number of fights remain subject to change.*

Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 312 fight card right here, starting with the ESPN2/ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. ET, before the main card start time at 10 p.m. ET (also on ESPN+).

To check out the latest and greatest UFC 312: “du Plessis vs. Strickland 2” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.

This news first appeared on MMA Mania. Read the original article.