January 8, 2025 4: 20 pm ET
Chris Curtis expects another wild fight from Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312.
Strickland (29-6 MMA, 16-6 UFC) rematches middleweight champion Du Plessis (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) in the Feb. 8 headliner at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. The main card streams on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN2 and ESPN+.
Their first fight at UFC 297 ended in a split decision, where Du Plessis got the nod over Strickland to claim the 185-pound belt. Du Plessis lost his lone-career rematch against Roberto Soldic, where after finishing him by TKO to win the KSW welterweight title, he lost their second fight by knockout.
“Fighting Dricus is like fighting a coked-out chimpanzee in a phone booth,” Curtis told MMA Junkie. “You’re just like, what’s happening? But I think it’s really overwhelming and surprising for guys because you’re like, who fights like this? What are you doing? And the dude is just out of his mind, trying to win.
“I respect that, but I feel like stylistically, in the second fight, when you kind of know what to expect and you understand that he’s dancing to his own song, I wonder how that goes, because his only rematch with Soldic, he lost. Yeah, that’s years ago, but I kind of think it’s k