The bout between Justin Tafa and Tallison Teixeira has been added to UFC 312: du Plessis vs Strickland 2. The fight card airs live from Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia on February 8 (ET). The pair squares off at heavyweight.
New Zealand-Australian Justin Tafa (7-4, 1 NC) looks to get back in the win column. In his previous outing in March, the 30-year-old stepped in for his injured brother Junior Tafa to face Karl Williams, but lost the fight by unanimous decision.
In October, Justin Tafa replaced Brazil’s Marcos Rogerio de Lima (22-9-1), and was expected to take on Kennedy Nzechukwu (14-5) of Nigeria. The bout, however, didn’t go ahead, as he was forced to withdraw, reportedly due to injury.
Tafa recorded his previous victory in September 2023 in Sydney, where he knocked out Austen Lane in the first round.
Tallison Teixeira (7-0) makes his UFC debut. The 25-year-old landed his contract with the promotion in September, knocking out Arthur Lopes in the first round at Dana White’s Contender Series. The unbeaten Brazilian was expected to face Lukasz Brzeski (9-5-1, 1 NC) of Poland at UFC 310: Pantoja vs Asakura in December, but withdrew due to injury.
In the main event of UFC 312, current middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis (22-2) of South Africa defends his belt against former titleholder Sean Strickland (29-6) of Anaheim, California in a rematch. In the co-main event, two-time strawweight champion Weili Zhang (25-3) of China defends her strap against Tatiana Suarez (10-0) of Covina, California.
The Tafa vs Teixeira showdown was reported by NT News. The contest is also featured on the card listed on ESPN. The promotion is expected to formally confirm the matchup shortly.
With the addition, the current UFC 312 lineup is as follows:
- Dricus du Plessis vs. Sean Strickland – du Plessis’ UFC middleweight title
- Weili Zhang vs. Tatiana Suarez – Zhang’s UFC strawweight title
- Quillan Salkilld vs. Anshul Jubli
- Rei Tsuruya vs. Stewart Nicoll
- Jimmy Crute vs. Marcin Prachnio
- Justin Tafa vs. Tallison Teixeira
The local UFC 312 date in Australia is February 9.