Preview: UFC 312 Prelims

The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday will return to Sydney with UFC 312 at Qudos Bank Arena, and the prelims are matched for action. That’s particularly true of the top two fights: Jack Jenkins and Gabriel Santos should go tit-for-tat in a featherweight war, while lightweights Tom Nolan and Viacheslav Borshchev clearly prioritize offense over defense. Meanwhile, women’s flyweight striker Cong Wang looks to rebound from a stunning upset loss to potentially inflict some violence on Bruna Brasil, and what might be the most intriguing bout of the bunch matches bantamweight newcomers Colby Thicknesse and Aleksandre Topuria. Beyond that, an expected mix of Australian and Asian talent should provide plenty of entertainment.

Now to the preview for the UFC 312 “Du Plessis vs. Strickland 2” undercard:

Featherweights

Gabriel Santos (11-2, 1-2 UFC) vs. Jack Jenkins (13-3, 3-1 UFC)

ODDS: Santos (-238), Jenkins (+195)

Australia’s Jenkins is an odd prospect, as his game is built around physicality and two clear points of strength. Jenkins throws leg kicks like a horse, breaking the fibulas of multiple opponents in the past, and has shown some impressive ground-and-pound when he can get on top of his opponent. That has made for some impressive moments and some excellent fights but also leaves a lot of potential for fights to go sideways against opponents who can either match Jenkins’ physicality or work around those weapons. He was a bit lucky to get a split decision over Jamall Emmers in 2023, and his next fight after that saw him stall out against Jose Mariscal before losing via injury stoppage. Jenkins did rebound with an expected win over Herbert Burns, but now it’s back to facing deceptively tough competition in the form of Santos. Brazil’s Santos kicked off his UFC career with two strong performances in 2023, though he wound up with little to show for it. Santos has shown the tools to compete at a high level, mixing aggression with offensive potency on the feet and the mat, but his UFC debut was a nip-tuck loss to current surging contender Lerone Murphy; he was the victim of a sudden come-from-behind knockout against David Onama in his sophomore effort. However, the third time was the charm for Santos, as he was able to pour things on in a dominant victory over Zha Yi in his last outing in September. This makes for an interesting pairing, as Santos figures to keep up the higher volume, but his combination of straight-ahead offense and middling defense should result in his absorbing a lot of powerful kicks from Jenkins. The lean here is that aggression wins the day for the Brazilian and that he’s able to gut through Jenkins’ attritive offense and find some success on the ground, but this is basically a coinflip that should be entertaining in practice. The pick is Santos via decision.

Jump To »
Jenkins vs. Santos
Borshchev vs. Nolan
Wang vs. Brasil
Topuria vs. Thicknesse
Steele vs. Rong
Jousset vs. Micallef
Salkilld vs. Jubli
Park vs. Tumendemberel