Sean Strickland winning the UFC middleweight title remains one of MMA’s most shocking moments. One thing that could top it? If he does it again.

That’s the opportunity Strickland has this Saturday when he rematches Dricus du Plessis in the main event of UFC 312 in Sydney. Strickland scored a shocking upset of Israel Adesanya to become champion, then dropped the title in a narrow loss to du Plessis at UFC 297. Both men won their following fights to set up a rematch and Strickland now finds himself on the precipice of making unlikely history after few predicted he would have gold around his waist.

The same is true of the co-main event, where strawweight champion Zhang Weili is tasked with stopping the undefeated Tatiana Suarez. Suarez’s rise to the top has come at a glacial pace due to injuries, but she can finish a story she’s been writing for years with a win over Zhang. Just don’t expect Zhang to cooperate when it comes to Suarez’s fairy tale coming to fruition.

MMA Fighting’s Alexander K. Lee, Damon Martin, and Jed Meshew gather at the roundtable to look ahead at the two big matchups headlining UFC 312, plus what hidden gems can be picked out on a card lacking in star power.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

1. Where would Strickland becoming a two-time champion rank among the most surprising MMA accomplishments?

Martin: Right ahead of Sean Strickland becoming a UFC champion in the first place?

Let’s be honest here. Strickland is a good fighter, but nobody outside of his teammates and coaches picked him to beat Israel Adesanya to become champion when he effectively got a title shot by default because the UFC needed a main event for UFC 293 in Australia and the always outspoken middleweight was available. A deep dive on Strickland’s résumé reveals he’s struggled to pull away from most of his competition with a 7-3 record in his past 10 fights, with six of those wins coming by decision and his one finish coming against an over-matched Abus Magomedov. Now to his credit, two of his three losses came by split decision—including his first fight against du Plessis—with the third ending in a knockout delivered by his new cornerman Alex Pereira.

By every measure available, Strickland is a solid but not necessarily great fighter that struggles to really separate himself from his competition. That’s why nobody expected him to become champion and the same logic applies to winning the belt twice! It’s not as shocking as Matt Serra knocking out Georges St-Pierre to win a UFC title or Holly Holm flatlining Ronda Rousey with a head kick but it’s not that far behind.

Meshew: This is sort of hard to nail down because the likelihood of it depends entirely on when the question is being asked.

If you posed this question to almost any person even remotely associated with MMA back in 2022, there would have been near-unanimous agreement that pigs were more likely to get into aviation. But then 2023 happened and somehow, Strickland reinvented himself and won the title with a dominant ass-whooping of the second-best middleweight ever.

Now, it’s obviously a lot more likely. Plenty of people think Strickland should have won the first bout with du Plessis, and even ardent DDP Stans like myself have to agree that his particular brand of big dumb violence is probably not destined for a super long title reign. It’s entirely possible Strickland is the one on the right side of the split decision come Saturday because the hard truth of the matter is Strickland is a good fighter. No, he isn’t exciting, and yes, his style is so devoid of offense that it makes fights unnecessarily close, but at this point denying his ability is purely hating.

So I guess that’s all to say it wouldn’t be that shocking.

Lee: In a void, it seems inconceivable.

Here’s a list of all the fighters to capture multiple UFC titles in the same division (in no particular order):

• Georges St-Pierre
• Jon Jones
• Jose Aldo
• Amanda Nunes
• Valentina Shevchenko
• Dominick Cruz
• Israel Adesanya
• Zhang Weili
• Matt Hughes
• Stipe Miocic
• Randy Couture
• Brandon Moreno
• Deiveson Figueiredo
• Cain Velasquez
• Rose Namajunas
• T.J. Dillashaw
• Tim Sylvia
• Carla Esparza

That’s it. Just 18 fighters in the modern era. And Strickland could join that list? Imagine Strickland being able to claim a feat that’s exclusive to fighters like GSP, Jones, Aldo, Nunes, Shevchenko, Couture. That sounds friggin’ weird, doesn’t it?

But that’s exactly what’s in play on Saturday. I’m still on the fence as far as making a pick, but I just wanted to properly frame this question and leave you all to stew on it.

Seriously, we’re in “Hall of Fame lock Sean Strickland” territory if he pulls this off.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

2. Where does Zhang move on the all-time pound-for-pound list if she beats Suarez on Saturday?

Lee: I have to put her in the top-5, which says as much about Tatiana Suarez as it does Zhang Weili.

As easy as it is to write Suarez off as missing her window due to the litany of injuries she’s dealt with, the fact is that for the most part she’s delivered on her extraordinary promise when she’s been healthy enough to enter the octagon and that makes her a perfect challenger for Zhang; which is to say, a perfect challenger to build Zhang’s legacy if the champion can add Suarez to her already impressive list of victories.

Yes, Zhang’s 0-2 mark against Rose Namajunas holds her back for now, but outside of that series the Chinese star has conquered all of her rivals and has looked truly dominant in several of those matchups. Just based on the eye test, it’s hard not to place Zhang among the likes of Amanda Nunes, Valentina Shevchenko, and Cris Cyborg.

Where exactly she slots in, I’m not sure, but when you consider she still has plenty of opportunities to further enhance her legacy, one gets the feeling we’ll be revisiting this question soon enough.

Martin: Part of this question relies on how highly you rank Suarez and for me, she’s the heir apparent and a fighter pegged as a future champion ever since she won The Ultimate Fighter 23. Unfortunately, Suarez is teetering on Cain Velasquez territory for fighters whose careers have forever been changed by injuries. But at her best, Suarez is a phenomenal fighter and if Zhang can beat her, that’s a huge feather in her cap.

So where would that put her all time?

It could be argued that Zhang racking up a third straight title defense and sixth win overall in championship bouts puts her in the top-3 all time behind Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko. Those two fighters have truly defined themselves as once in a generation talents that faced the best possible competition available to them. Zhang beating potentially her toughest challenge to date would be a massive achievement and she could cement herself in that upper echelon of all-time greats. Sharing rarified air alongside Nunes and Shevchenko is a great place to be.

Meshew: Now this is a tough question.

By my estimation, the top-5 pound-for-pound greatest female fighters ever are, in order, Amanda Nunes, Cris Cyborg, Valentina Shevchenko, Ronda Rousey, and Joanna Jedrzejczyk. You can make a case for someone like Megumi Fujii, but those five women all had long reigns beating good opposition, which is what matters most in the GOAT conversation. And Zhang is definitely knocking on the door of that conversation, especially if she wins.

A win for Zhang almost certainly guarantees she ends up with the longest strawweight title reign in days (Jedrzejczyk is at 966, Zhang is a few weeks over 800 days) and puts her one behind Jedrzejczyk in terms of successful title defenses. The pair of losses to Namajunas during the prime of her career are a minor blemish, but other than that we’re talking about a stellar run. Plus, she has the two wins over Jedrzejczyk. So if Zhang wins on Saturday, the conversation for No. 5 all time is officially open, and one more after that probably removes all argument.

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

3. What fighter outside the top 2 bouts has a chance to steal the show?

Meshew: LOL. The honest to God true answer is no one.

This card is the hottest of garbage outside of the two title fights and nobody—other than the friends and family of the fighters competing—is going to care. This would be a bad APEX card, much less a bad pay-per-view. God forbid something happens to either of the main or co-main events this week because if so then this might go down as the worst PPV on record.

But, if you are going to make me choose, give me Francisco Prado, who takes on Jake Matthews in the main card opener.

Prado is only 22 years old and he’s already shown to be a very talented and exciting young man. You may remember him from having a damn good fight with Daniel Zellhuber at UFC Mexico last year (though, admittedly, not as good as Zellhuber’s UFC 306 scrap) and that’s exactly what you can expect out of him. He brings a lot of violence to the table and for the many fair criticisms of Matthews, the man does not back down from a fight.

If one fight is going to brighten up this turd sandwich of a card, this is the one.

Lee: I don’t know if he can steal the show per se, but I will be fixated on Anshul Jubli’s second official UFC appearance (he won a Road to UFC finals bout at a UFC Vegas event, but those tournament bouts apparently don’t count? I’m still confused on this one).

When last we saw India’s “King of Lions,” he appeared to be on his way to an 8-0 start to his career as he was cruising to a decision against an overweight Mike Breeden. This was booked to be a showcase fight for Jubli and for all intents and purposes he was getting the job done.

Then Breeden started barking at him. And he didn’t stop. For the love of all that is holy, for five minutes, Breeden literally had that dog in him. Jubli had no idea how to react, visibly wilting as the rabid Breeden walked him down. Midway through the third round, Breeden poured on the pressure and he left UFC 294 with a comeback knockout and Jubli seemingly in shambles.

So yeah, I want to see how the man bounces back. Having a legit contender from India would be awesome (shout-out to Puja Tomar and her dubious split nod over Rayanne dos Santos, still counts!) and Jubli looked like a promising prospect until Breeden decided to channel Cujo. A win over the heavily favored Quillan Salkilld can get the Jubli hype train back on track.

Martin: This is impossibly tough because truth be told, UFC 312 is basically a two-fight card. The two championship bouts are the only fights with any real stakes attached to them, so you might as well strap on a blindfold and just throw darts at a board to see what you get.

I’ll go all the way to the prelims to find the one fighter on this card who really intrigues me and that’s Contender Series signing Kody Steele. He’s an undefeated prospect with hammers for fists and world-class grappling that he hasn’t really shown off much lately. Steele has all the makings of a future contender in the UFC if he can fight to his strengths. He’s ultra exciting, a nasty finisher who scored a body shot knockout to earn his UFC contract, and he has an Eddie Bravo Invitational win under his belt.

Is Rongzhu actually going to challenge him? He does have about four times as much experience so that has to count for something, but this is a chance for Steele to shine, maybe earn a bonus, and get a spot higher up on the card when he fights next.