Fight Facts: UFC 312 ‘Du Plessis vs. Strickland’

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and Octagon oddities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC FIGHTS: 8,032
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 720

The Ultimate Fighting Championship huffed and puffed, but it could not blow the walls down at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. The fighters fought valiantly but few emerging storylines or spectacular stoppages arose from the dozen-bout offering. UFC 312 featured a number of undefeated fighters losing their shine, a middleweight champ quietly plugging through the leaderboard and a wrestler who couldn’t buy a takedown.

Lofty Heights: Four fighters came into UFC 312 with unbeaten records: Tatiana Suarez, Tallison Teixeira, Colby Thicknesse and Kody Steele. Only Teixeira emerged with his spotless record intact.

Now Teach Math: Registering his second successful middleweight title defense against Sean Strickland, Dricus Du Plessis tied Rich Franklin for the fourth-longest UFC 185-pound championship run. Only Chris Weidman (three defenses), Israel Adesanya (five defenses) and Anderson Silva (10 defenses) sit above him.

Just Durable Enough: Unable to put Strickland away, Du Plessis settled to earn the third decision win of his pro career. All three have taken place in the UFC, with two coming against Strickland.

Hollow Victory: In a losing effort, Strickland connected with 128 significant strikes over the course of five rounds. As a UFC middleweight, Strickland’s total of 1,465 eclipses Michael Bisping’s 1,384 for the most in the division’s history.

GOAT Talks Approaching: Completing a one-sided decision victory over formerly undefeated Suarez, Weili Zhang passed a major test while tying Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the most championship victories in the history of women’s strawweight with six.

Weili or Rose or Joanna: Zhang’s 10 wins at 115 pounds tie her for the second-most in divisional history along several other names including ex-foes Jessica Andrade and Carla Esparza. Angela Hill’s 11 sit above the pack.

Evenly Even: Both Zhang and Suarez completed exactly one takedown against one another in their matchup. This keeps the tied at 26 apiece, remaining in fourth place for the most takedowns performed in strawweight history.

She Looks Wrestly: Leading up to this co-main event, Suarez had hit at least one takedown on each of her previous eight UFC foes. She kept that stretch of taking down every opponent intact, but also succumbed to her first takedown defensively. Women were collectively 0-2 at grounding her before Zhang succeeded.

Melting Point: Teixeira crushed Justin Tafa with a knee to the body and a follow-up elbow, getting the stoppage 35 seconds in. The Brazilian kept his 100% finish and 100% first-round stoppage rates intact with the emphatic win.

Jimmy Two Times: Winning a dominant first round but settling for a majority draw against Rodolfo Bellato, Jimmy Crute fought to even scorecards for the second time in his UFC tenure. He joins a group of seven combatants that have earned multiple draws in the Octagon, with names like B.J. Penn, Brandon Moreno and Ken Shamrock.

Underachievement: The UFC broadcast noted that Matthews sported a 12-0 record in the UFC when amassing a significant strike accuracy rate of 40% or above, while coming in 1-7 when not. “The Celtic Kid” connected with 36% of his sig strikes but still had his hand raised at night’s end.

So Close, Not So Phar: Getting the tap at 2:06 of the third round, Gabriel Santos disappointed Australian fans by submitting Jack Jenkins. “Phar” has still never involved the judges in a loss, with all four of his setbacks coming by stoppage.

Sickness of the Thicknesse: Battling all 15 minutes, Aleksandre Topuria introduced himself to the UFC brass by taking a decision over Thicknesse. It marked the first time the elder Topuria brother had heard the final bell, win or lose.

As Expected: Quillan Salkilld blasted Anshul Jubli with one punch in 19 seconds to record the speedy victory and an extra $50,000. The Aussie lifted his finish rate to 75% with the win, and while he started the night off well for home-country fighters, the local Australians went 4-3-1 against foreign foes.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into UFC 312, Suarez had never fought beyond Round 3 (10 fights), Jousset had never dropped consecutive bouts (13 fights) and Steele had never competed outside of the U.S. (seven fights).

Nu Rawk: In all nine of his UFC fights, South Africa’s Du Plessis has been accompanied by Airbourne’s “Live It Up” for his walkouts. The win percentage for this Aussie arena rock group sits at .909 largely because of “DDP.”

Heads Did Roll: Suarez debuted in 2016 with her entrance music as “Sunshine” by Matisyahu but changed it in her next outing to “Heads Will Roll” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Picking the latter tune ever since, she suffered her first loss with it after facing Zhang.