UFC 312 is in the books, and both Dricus du Plessis and Zhang Weili remain UFC champions.

On Saturday night at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, du Plessis left no doubt about his dominance over Sean Strickland, battering the former champion over 25 minutes to retain his middleweight title. Plus, right before that, Zhang quite possibly cemented herself as the greatest strawweight of all-time with a one-sided drubbing of the undefeated Tatiana Suarez to retain her title.

Aside from those two fights, not much else of note happened for the latest UFC pay-per-view offering, but it’s still a big event, so MMA Fighting once again gathered the brain trust to break down the latest big UFC fight card.

1. What is your blurb review of UFC 312?

Lee: Exactly as advertised. And that’s not a compliment.

Yes, there were some early sparks on the show, and none of the fights were awful, but none of the fights were electrifying either (with respect to Rongzhu’s Fight of the Night win over Kody Steele, cosplaying as Michael Chandler for the evening, apparently) and I’d be surprised if anyone is talking about this event with yet another APEX show just around the corner.

Heck: Slightly, and I mean slightly better than advertised, but the bar was VERY low!

When we think about overall card impact, the main card is the bar — and the PPV portion had two decent early scraps, a brutal knockout, and two dominant championship performances. On top of that, Aleksandre Topuria was the third-biggest story of the event, and the slightly older brother of Ilia Topuria is one to watch going forward at 135. A lot of not great, but we were prepared for that, too.

Martin: A lackluster card that ended up being lackluster!

While I appreciate looking at the bright side of things, UFC 312 might go down as one of the most forgettable cards in recent history outside of the two key fights at the top, and even those didn’t give us much drama to talk about afterwards. This event might drag out a few more days of interest solely because the UFC card on Feb. 15 isn’t exactly a banger either, but largely, the storylines coming out of this card are much more about what comes next than what just happened.

Meshew: You got what you paid for.

Heading into UFC 312, everyone was pretty much in agreement that this card had two very good fights at the top and nothing else, so if you dropped the $80 on this card, you knew what you were buying, and you got exactly that. Neither the main nor co-main events were thrilling, but they were high-level fights between some of the best in the world. Sure, you bought them at the top of the market, but not everything has to be a deal.

2. Are you a Dricus du Plessis believer now?

Meshew: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Buddy, I’ve been a believer. I’m proud to say I was among the earliest adopters of du Plessis, and it has been one of the great joys of my MMA fandom over the past two years to watch the sea of haters and doubters slowly but surely come to the light. My medium adult son, my beautiful violence bozo, is one of the best fighters in the world and everyone finally agrees. It’s glorious.

Lee: I want to say yes, but I’m also picking Khamzat Chimaev to run him over in his next title fight, so how much of a believer can I be?

There’s no questioning Dricus du Plessis knows how to win fights, even if at times it looks like he’s one step away from disaster. But you can’t argue with results, and few middleweights in UFC history have seen their hand raised more often in big fights than du Plessis. He’s a deserving champion, and one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, even if I don’t expect him to hold on to his current spot for long.

Heck: I took a little longer than others who will weigh-in, but I’m all-in and have been since the Robert Whittaker thrashing.

If you listened to my breakdown of this rematch with Sean Strickland, it went almost exactly as expected. If Strickland implements the same game plan as the first meeting, this fight won’t be close — and boy, it sure wasn’t.

Look, I get why we did the rematch, but now we get to the fight we all want, and that’s DDP vs. Khamzat, and there may not be a more interesting fight the UFC can put together right now. This will be must-see TV, and if du Plessis can make it to the midway point of Round 2, he’s going to be the first to hand Chimaev a loss.

Martin: I’m proud to say I’ve been riding on the du Plessis bandwagon ever since he went scorched Earth on Robert Whittaker, and I’m not jumping off the train any time soon.

Like most people who have watched du Plessis win fight after fight in the UFC without fully understanding how he keeps doing it, that awkward and unorthodox style he employs just keeps paying off. Technically, du Plessis isn’t an elite striker or a world-class grappler, but as my podcast co-host Matt Brown often says on The Fighter vs. The Writer — it doesn’t matter how it looks so long as it works. It’s working for du Plessis, and he looked even better in the second go-round with Strickland. While the UFC 312 main event wasn’t exactly Fight of the Year material, du Plessis deserves credit for trying his best to put Strickland away, and now we can all get really excited about what comes next with Khamzat Chimaev waiting in the wings.

3. Is Zhang Weili the greatest strawweight of all time?

Lee: Yup. As unfortunate as it is that she has two losses to Rose Namajunas, we can look past those setbacks given that her overall body of work is so strong. Not to denigrate Namajunas too much (I mean, she did obliterate Zhang with a head kick once upon a time), but Zhang doesn’t have the blips on her record that “Thug Rose” does *cough * Carla Esparza *cough*. So it’s a matter of degrees, but that’s enough for me to lean towards Zhang over Namajunas and Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

Heck: Yes, yes, and yes.

As AK sort of laid out, the Namajunas stretch is a strange blip on an overall outstanding run, but sometimes a fighter just has your number — plus, I also thought Zhang won the rematch, but that’s neither here nor there.

Zhang entered this fight as the underdog, which was shocking to me. Despite being 35, she’s at the best she’s ever looked in the UFC. These fights are simply not competitive at all, with Zhang being two steps ahead of everyone. And the thing about this Suarez fight that stood out most to me in the lead, all the way up to the walk to the cage on Saturday, Zhang knew she was Suarez’s kryptonite. Nobody has done that to Suarez, and it’s unlikely anybody else will be able to.

I also believe we saw Zhang’s final fight at 115, so I hope fans enjoyed what they saw on Saturday because she has new challenges ahead.

Martin: It certainly seems that way.

She’s a two-time champion with four total title defenses under her belt. Zhang beat Joanna Jedrzejczyk twice, and “Joanna Champion” probably the best claim to GOAT status at strawweight following her own title reign. Zhang certainly can’t forget the two losses she has to Rose Namajunas, who also has two wins over Jedrzejcyzk as well, but that doesn’t negate her overall greatness. Zhang’s record at strawweight is really impressive, and she just continues to rack up high-quality wins over top-notch opposition. Her resume may not get much deeper now because all signs are pointing towards a move to flyweight, and then perhaps Zhang could start entering that conversation as just one of the greatest women’s fighters in the history of the sport.

Meshew: I believe so.

Before UFC 312, I argued that a Zhang win would make her the strawweight GOAT and move her into the top-five female fighters ever group (along with Amanda Nunes, Valentina Shevchenko, Cris Cyborg, and Ronda Rousey, replacing Jedrzejczyk), and not only did she get that win, she dominated Suarez. Zhang has the same number of title fight wins as Jedrzejczyk, one fewer defense, will have the longest reign in a matter of months, and has the two wins over Jedrzejczyk. That’s a lot in her favor.

That being said, I think there’s at least some debate left (as these things always are debated) and that’s why I hope Zhang sticks around 115 for a few more fights, because if she adds title defenses over Virna Jandiroba and like, Mackenzie Dern or something, it’s undeniable and then the question is how far up the GOAT list does she climb.

4. Who is the biggest loser of UFC 312?

Lee: Following Tatiana Suarez’s humbling loss to Zhang Weili, the commentary team speculated that Suarez still has plenty of time to battle back to the top. I don’t know if that’s true.

Suarez recently turned 34, not senior age by any stretch, but she’s put a lot of mileage on a body that has been racked by injuries, so it’s anyone’s guess how many fights she has left in her and how motivated she’ll be to fight for the title again after such a deflating loss. Watching Saturday’s co-main event, she had few answers for Zhang, and I’d bet she has a lot of questions to ask herself going forward.

Heck: AK is 100 percent correct, but I’ll make the case for Sean Strickland.

There’s a very good chance that Strickland fought for a UFC title for the final time on Saturday, and I know, deep down, that’s going to bum Strickland out. Are there big fights for him still? Certainly. Could he fight Robert Whittaker next? Yes. Is that what I would do? Absolutely not, because middleweight is getting better and better, and deeper and deeper. The Caio Borralhos and the Nassourdine Imavovs are here. The “Fluffy” Hernandezs, the RDRs, and the Bo Nickals are coming, and they’re getting here quick.

Strickland, love him or hate him, overachieved massively, and despite getting dinged up by du Plessis for 25 minutes, showed tremendous toughness and class in defeat with his post-fight interview. No matter what, Strickland will go down in history as a UFC champion, and nobody can ever take that away from him.

Martin: It’s Sean Strickland because his days as a title contender are probably over now.

Let’s not kid ourselves, Strickland already accomplished far more than most people would have imagined because he constantly fights like he’s gunning for a 48-47 scorecard. He takes very few risks, plays defense better than offense, and his most viral moments have come from the insanity he spews on the microphone far more than what he’s actually done in the octagon. Strickland shocked the world when he nearly knocked out Israel Adesanya, but the key word there is “nearly” because even in a lopsided fight, he still couldn’t get the finish.

While Strickland has become some sort of folk hero to a lot of UFC fans, Din Thomas had it right when he called out Strickland for talking a good game and then not backing it up in the cage. He’s ready to fight to the death, which for Strickland apparently means sticking behind his jab for 25 consecutive minutes. Now, with two losses to du Plessis and an infuriating style that just screams, ‘This is going to a decision,’ it’s tough to imagine him climbing back up that championship mountain again.

Meshew: I am flabbergasted by y’all. None of you are remotely correct. Both Strickland and Suarez are one loss or title vacation away from being right back in the mix in their respective divisions. No, the biggest loser on Saturday was someone who didn’t even fight on Saturday: poor Manon Fiorot.

Fiorot should have the most iron-clad title shot imaginable right now, and yet after Zhang’s incredible performance, suddenly there’s a very real world where Fiorot gets passed over for a crack at Shevchenko because business is the currency of the realm these days. In the post-fight press conference, UFC CEO Dana White hinted pretty heavily that Zhang may, in fact, be next up for Shevchenko, and given that fight was apparently already floated before UFC 312 even happened, and somehow a woman who has done everything right may be left out in the cold.

5. Outside of the top two fights, who was the hero of UFC 312?

Lee: Anyone who paid to watch this thing from beginning to end?

OK, that’s a bit harsh because it wasn’t an awful card, but I can’t imagine anyone being completely satisfied if they shelled out $80 to see a handful of promising debutantes and a pair of one-sided title fights. What hurts is if you look at this lineup and this past Saturday’s UFC Saudi Arabia lineup, you can picture a fantastic card comprised of the best fights from both. However, in the modern UFC landscape, content is king, so we have to deal with the occasional lackluster card and, worse, the occasional lackluster PPV.

Heck: It’s a personal choice, but I’m going with Aleksandre Topuria. Let’s be real, my friends, once UFC Seattle rolls around, we won’t remember anything outside of what DDP and Zhang did on this card, but I’m invested in Topuria’s bantamweight future after what I saw against a pretty talented guy in his UFC debut.

When I spoke with him a couple of days before the fight, I was blown away by how calm, cool, and confident he was. He said he felt no pressure at all, and as much as he showed it — maybe it was a poker face — there’s just no way he was pressure-free. How could he be? All the talk about his brother and champ Ilia Topuria, Alexander Volkanovski in the corner, and the newer fan base who would’ve ripped Topuria to shreds if he lost on Saturday.

What Topuria did was win, and he did so convincingly. As the old cliché goes, leave them wanting more. As impressed as I was with Topuria, I’m incredibly intrigued to see his sophomore appearance.

Martin: Maybe heroes?

This wasn’t a good card. Don’t try to pretend otherwise. But credit to Rongzhu and Kody Steele for putting on a truly entertaining three-round battle on the prelims. Steele, who is a high-level grappler with plenty of accolades on his resume, decided to just throw caution to the wind and engage in a standup battle against Rongzhu. It didn’t work out too well for Steele beyond showing that he can take a serious punch, but man, that fight was entertaining. On a night filled with blowout wins or just forgettable fights, Rongzhu vs. Steele was one to remember beyond UFC 312.

Meshew: Aleksandre Topuria is probably the “right” answer, but since Mike already covered him, I want to give a shoutout to the announcement that dropped during the pay-per-view broadcast: the fight between Israel Adesanya and Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 236 will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame this year.

I was sitting cage-side for that fight, and I can say without reservation that it was one of the top five sporting experiences of my life and one of the top five fights I’ve ever seen. It was such an unbelievable emotional journey that it completely drained me just watching it. I distinctly remember watching the main event after it — the rematch between Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway that was second in Fight of the Year rankings that year — and thinking, “This fight is also incredible, but I’m too emotionally spent to invest in it the same way.

Both men and this fight absolutely deserve this honor, and if you’ve never seen the fight before, I strongly encourage you to go back and watch it. I promise you won’t regret it.