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.

Since April 2023, the Middleweight title changed hands from Alex Pereira to Israel Adesanya to Sean Strickland to Dricus du Plessis, who is currently holding the belt. Many expected Pereira to have a long reign, but after he coughed it up to “The Last Stylebender” he started a whole new violent reign at Light Heavyweight, where he still sits at the top. Down at 185 pounds, “DDP” is still reigning supreme and will attempt to secure his second straight title defense against the very man he took it from at UFC 297 in early 2024. “Stillknocks” has been on quite a run, winning 10 straight fights which includes going 8-0 inside the Octagon, with big wins over Robert Whittaker, 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. At Welterweight, Jake Matthews will face Francisco Prado to kick off the main card. It’s not exactly a fight you expect to see on the main card of a major pay-per-view (PPV) event, but 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 the UFC banner, so you can see why some eyebrows were raised when this fight was announced as a PPV worthy bout.

A Light Heavyweight bout between Jimmy Crute and Marcin Prachnio was scrapped from this event after Prachnio withdrew for unknown reasons. He was replaced by former LFA Light Heavyweight champion Rodolfo Bellato, who made good on his UFC 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. On weigh-in day, Nyamjargal Tumendemberel was forced out of his scheduled fight against Park Hyun-sung as a result of weight management issues. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) continues its 2025 pay-per-view (PPV) schedule on Sat., Feb. 8, with a rematch between 185-pound kingpin, Dricus du Plessis, running it back against the man he lifted the belt off little more than one year ago, Sean Strickland, in the five-round main event. In UFC 312’s championship co-headliner from inside Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, women’s Strawweight roost-ruler, Zhang Weili, will defend her belt against undefeated (and oft-injured) 115-pound contender, Tatiana Suarez. UFC 312 will also feature a hard-hitting Heavyweight battle between Justin Tafa vs. Talisson Teixeira, alongside a Light Heavyweight showdown with Jimmy Crute facing Rodolfo Bellato, and so much more.

Undefeated Heavyweight prospect, Tallison Teixeira, earned his right to fight under the bright UFC lights thanks to a first-round knockout win on the 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 be facing Justin Tafa, a hard-hitting big man who is looking for a win after coming up short against Karl Williams in his last fight. This bout could end early. Undefeated (7-0) Lightweight contender, Kody Steele, will make his official debut after a stellar outing on the 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.

Jenkins is 3-1 under the UFC banner, racking up wins against Don Shainis, Jamall Emmers, and Herbert Burns. As for Santos, he finally picked up 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, ending the hype he had coming out of the Contender Series. He bounced back nicely with two straight wins and will go for lucky number three against Viacheslav Borshchev, who is a very inconsistent 3-3-1 inside the Octagon. In the co-main event of the evening, Tatiana Suarez will finally get her chance at winning UFC gold when she challenges current women’s Strawweight champion, Zhang Weili. 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 7-0 under the UFC banner. 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 predicated 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.”