Issue 213

January 2025

As UFC 312 approaches, Kyle Dimond uncovers the curious reasons why Australia remains the epicenter of middleweight title clashes. 

After UFC 312 was announced for Australia, the big names from this region started to rule themselves out of having their faces plastered on Sydney’s billboards. Israel Adesanya is competing later in a non-title main event for the first time since 2018. Alexander Volkanovski is marching to the beat of Ilia Topuria’s drum, and Tai Tuivasa has fallen down the pecking order. Who would be next? In an interview with Submission Radio in November, Dan Hooker declined the opportunity to be in action on February 8, meaning the event would likely go ahead without an Ozzie or Kiwi atop the card. In a clairvoyant statement, Hooker made a call. 

“I don’t even know who’s fighting in bloody February,” Hooker said. “It seems like usually we tend to get like the middleweight title on the Australian cards, you know. There was Yoel and Rockhold, like it seems to always be the middleweight title up for grabs in Australia, but yeah, it’s going to be a funny one. I’m not sure who’s headlining that one.”

‘The Hangman’ may have a crystal ball because it was announced that the main event in Sydney, Dricus Du Plessis, would headline the card in a middleweight title defense against the former titleholder, Sean Strickland.

THE GOLD BELONGS TO OCEANIA 

Since Anderson Silva’s iconic middleweight title run ended at the hands of Chris Weidman at UFC 162 in 2013, there have been 20 middleweight title fights. Of those 20, six have taken place outside the US. Three of them have been in Australia. Add the two title fights at 185lb that were booked to take place in Oz that fell by the wayside, and the upcoming main event of UFC 312, and since 2018, the middleweight title has received the top billing six times in seven years. 

Before any injuries or replacements occurred, these six events would have headlined Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya on three occasions, a big reason why middleweight has become such a frequent visitor. Submission Radio is Australia’s leading MMA show, and host Denis Shkuratov says that this part of the world has been blessed with two generational fighters in quick succession who just happened to be in the same weight class.

“We've been pretty lucky here in Australia and with New Zealand because we've predominantly had the greatest middleweights in the world,” explained Shkuratov. 

Despite this period of the middleweight belt staying within reach, Shkuratov believes this will end at UFC 312.

"There's no way it will be back in Australia,” he told Fighters Only. “I think Izzy is at a point in his career where we all know he is a champion, and he's one of the best to ever do it, but I don't think the title is really something that he cares about that much, so he's gonna go out there and have a bunch of fun fights for himself and he deserves that. With Robert Whittaker, I would love to see him move up to 205 and have a crack at that division. He's a huge guy, people don't realize it, but he's a massive dude in real life, and he walks around pretty big, pretty heavy."

MID-LEVEL CLASHES 

Despite Whittaker’s and Adesanya’s successes, the only time it really came together for the two major stars from this area of the world was when they collided with each other at UFC 243. Even then, the night wrapped up with low-hung heads after Whittaker’s reign ended. For as long as the middleweights have been on show in Australia, it hasn’t panned out for the home crowd favorites aside from the coin flip when there was an Australasian on both sides. Before his loss to ‘The Last Stylebender,’ Whittaker was scheduled twice for what would have been an incredible homecoming. ‘The Reaper’ unfortunately withdrew from main event bouts against Kelvin Gastelum and Luke Rockhold due to injuries and illness. When Whittaker finally got his hometown moment, it was a public execution by the Nigerian-born Kiwi. 

Adesanya’s homecoming of sorts was also spoiled when his long-awaited return to ‘Straya was tipped upside down by Sean Strickland at UFC 293. Though Adesanya has produced two big wins when fighting in Australia, the stars who brought the Octagon to their neck of the woods didn’t get as many classic nights on home turf as they would have hoped. Fortunately for the two men who will feature at the Qudos Bank Arena next, they have produced the biggest wins of their careers on Oceanic turf. 

IS THERE A HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE? 

The last three events in Australia have seen the home crowd favorite lose in the main event each time. However, for fighters who either represent Australia or New Zealand, their overall win rate is what you would expect. The crescendo has not lived up to the sum of its parts. Across those PPV landscapes, 30 fights featured home fighters, and the local heroes came out on top 15 times.

At the top of the card, the only somewhat comparable case of a gold belt being primarily tied to one region (that isn’t the US) has been in the lightweight division, as it is with middleweight, which has been caused by two major focal points from the same region in quick succession. Since Khabib Nurmagomedov became the lightweight champion at UFC 223 in 2018, there have been 10 title fights at 155 pounds (excluding the two interim contests), with four taking place in Abu Dhabi. Unlike the mixed results of Whittaker and Adesanya in Australia, Nurmagomedov and his successor, Islam Makhachev, are undefeated in title fights in the UAE. Makhachev is curating an aura of a mythical fighter when he’s in Abu Dhabi. When you enter the lion’s den, he chews you up and spits you out. This is not the case in the middleweight division, where the recent tourists have been heading home with a shiny gold belt and an I-love-AUS T-shirt. 

HONORARY AUSSIES

Submission Radio’s Denis Shkuratov was surprised to see the middleweight title rematch headline on February 8. He says that while Australian fans would have likely wanted to see new faces make the trip over, there is a familiarity with Du Plessis and Strickland.

“With DDP, he's really found like a second home here in Australia,” suggests Shkuratov. “It's kind of like a similar vibe, and with Strickland, he seems to be super over in Australia like he kind of connects to a lot of the core values that we have as fight fans. And the fact that he's got this dry wit and sense of humor, and he can take the piss. So it's not the worst thing in the world like it's going to be great to see them back but it is bizarre that this fight falls down here."

With no home favorite topping the card, will Du Plessis or Strickland step into that spot, or will the crowd be split?  History may indicate Du Plessis would be the heel, with Strickland being the people’s champion. At UFC 305, Du Plessis stepped into the role of the pantomime villain at points and showed glimpses of that against Strickland at UFC 297 when he cut through the tension of his feud with the defending champion by playing up to the crowd.

UFC/YouTube

MIDDLEWEIGHT MADNESS

Du Plessis excels at villainy in ways we’ve rarely seen from a champion. South Africa and Australia are proud sporting nations, and you can see that influence throughout the build-up to Du Plessis’ first title defense. Though some of his comments did strike a serious emotional nerve, some remarks were precisely what you would expect from a Springboks fan in the home of The Wallabies. He didn’t do this in Canada because he holds nothing against them, but antagonizing Australians is something that South Africans relish

“It's almost like he's unaffected by what people say about him, and if you go there, he's just going to keep going there and going there and going there,” says Shkuratov. “He's one of these guys that loves getting a reaction out of people, and I know that in the back of his mind when that fight week starts, he'll still be thinking about that time where Sean Strickland jumped over the barricade and tried to punch him in the head."

Similarly to the relationship between the champion and his opponent, the crowd's perception of Du Plessis changed after the fight. He received a lot of cheers, especially when he showed immense respect and gratitude towards Adesanya in his post-fight interview. However, given his tendency to be the antagonist and what happened at UFC 293, it seems unlikely the Sydney crowd will welcome him with that same warmth.

A CHAMPION FOR THE PEOPLE

Aside from his upset-of-the-year performance, the most surprising thing about Sean Strickland’s fight week for UFC 293 is that he was treated like the hometown hero in Sydney. Australian fans love to root for the underdog and hate to see any Kiwi succeed. Strickland’s rebel energy and trash-talking of Adesanya could have turned him into a supervillain, but it had the opposite effect. 

“I was even kind of doubting myself at times, but I gotta say, the fans in Australia, you guys motivated me,” he said during his post-fight Octagon interview. “Not even joking around. When I walked in here, I heard you guys yelling. In that fourth round, when I heard you guys yelling, it fucking fueled me, you guys, so I want to thank you guys for this win because you fucking motivated me. Let’s go Australia.”

Shkuratov believes that the fans in Sydney instantly connected to Strickland as a straight-talking underdog.  

"The problem as well is you have these two guys who are both so good at banter,” says Shkuratov. “So good at trash talk, I almost feel like the fans are going to be watching closely on who prevails. Who comes out on top, who has the best zingers, and then when the fight comes, maybe they'll support them a little bit more."

If Strickland is set to be the home favorite, this may not bode well for his chances of reclaiming the middleweight title, especially when Du Plessis has already won an away victory in Oz. That said, if history is going to repeat itself, the outspoken American might be in the right place at the right time. 

There have been four champion vs challenger contests that have taken place down under. The first was one of the most iconic moments in the sport's history when Holly Holm delivered the head kick heard around the world against Ronda Rousey. Fast forward eight years, and Makhachev denied Volkanovski the opportunity to join the champ-champ club. This cycle then repeated itself with “and new” being heard at UFC 293 with “and still” at UFC 305. On February 8, we will find out whether the pendulum swings towards the green and yellow of Australia’s sporting rivals or the red, white, and blue of the American dream.