Making his return to action at UFC 312, Jimmy Crute faces a new opponent, Rodolfo Bellato, while Jonathan Micallef makes his promotional debut against Kevin Jousset. The fight card airs live from Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia, on February 8 (ET).
Jimmy Crute (12-4-1) was originally scheduled to face Poland’s Marcin Prachnio (17-8), who withdrew due to undisclosed reasons. The Australian light heavyweight is coming off a defeat by submission in the second round against Alonzo Menifield in July 2023. His new rival, Rodolfo Bellato (12-2) of Brazil, is riding a four-fight winning streak, including a second-round TKO against Ihor Potieria last time out in late 2023.
Australia’s Jonathan Micallef (7-1) makes his UFC debut after submitting Mohamed Ado in the first round at Dana White’s Contender Series last October. Kevin Jousset (10-3) of France was stopped by Bryan Battle in the second round last September, which snapped his five-fight winning streak.
Both matchups were confirmed on Thursday. The announcement follows the UFC 312 event poster that dropped on Tuesday.
In the main event, Dricus du Plessis (22-2) of South Africa makes the second defense of his middleweight title in a rematch against former champion Sean Strickland (29-6) of Anaheim, California. In the co-main event, China’s two-time strawweight champion Weili Zhang (25-3) defends her belt against Tatiana Suarez (10-0) of Covina, California.
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
- Tom Nolan vs. Viacheslav Borshchev
- Jack Jenkins vs. Gabriel Santos
- Justin Tafa vs. Tallison Teixeira
- Quillan Salkilld vs. Anshul Jubli
- Rei Tsuruya vs. Stewart Nicoll
- Jimmy Crute vs. Rodolfo Bellato
- Cody Haddon vs. Aleksandre Topuria
- Bruna Brasil vs. Wang Cong
- Rong Zhu vs. Kody Steele
- Jonathan Micallef vs. Kevin Jousset
The local UFC 312 date in Australia is February 9.