UFC 312: Jimmy Crute faces Rodolfo Bellato, Jonathan Micallef meets Kevin Jousset

Rodolfo Bellato replaces Marcin Prachnio, Jonathan Micallef makes UFC debut

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.

Parviz Iskenderov
Parviz Iskenderov is a former Muay Thai fighter, sports manager and editor at FIGHTMAG.

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