UFC 312 Fight Card: Zhang Vs. Suarez

The UFC presents its second pay-per-view card on the promotion’s 2025 schedule, UFC 312, on Saturday, February 8. In the main event of the ESPN+ pay-per-view card is a title fight rematch. That contest pits current champ Dricus du Plessis against the man he took the title from in January 2024, Sean Strickland. In the UFC 312 co-main event, women’s strawweight titleholder Zhang Weili faces the undefeated Tatiana Suarez. Below, we look at the betting odds for Zhang vs. Suarez fight and offer our preview, picks, and predictions for the bout.

UFC 312 Fight Card Preview: Zhang Weili Vs. Tatiana Suarez

Zhang Weili (25-3) is in her second stint with the UFC’s 115-pound title. The 34-year-old first captured the belt in August 2019 in her fourth fight with the UFC. Zhang defeated Jessica Andrade via TKO at the 0:42 mark of the first round of their UFC Fight Night bout in China to capture the belt. Zhang’s first defense of her crown came in March 2020, when she scored a split decision over former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

Zhang’s title reign ended in April 2021 when Rose Namajunas scored a highlight-reel head kick knockout win over the champ 78 seconds into their UFC 261 scrap. Namajunas held onto the belt in the rematch in November 2021, defeating Zhang via split decision.

Zhang bounced back from those back-to-back defeats in June 2022 when she once again beat Jedrzejczyk, this time scoring a knockout victory.

In November 2022, Zhang found herself once again fighting for the belt. She reclaimed UFC gold with a submission win over Carla Esparza.

Zhang has since defended her title twice, beating Amanda Lemos via decision in August 2023, and most recently defeating Yan Xiaonan via decision at UFC 300.

“I believe I would fight Tatiana sooner or later because she has a great track record, and she’s also very high in the rankings,” Weili told MMA Junkie. “I think Tatiana is very good at grappling and wrestling, and I’m very happy I can fight with her in Australia. I think Tatiana is the best wrestler and grappler of all the opponents I have faced. But I think all of Tatiana’s strengths have a way to solve it and a way to handle it.”

Tatiana Suarez (10-0) is the No. 1 fighter in the official UFC strawweight rankings. The 33-year-old has been with the UFC since July 2016 when she won season 23 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” defeating Amanda Cooper via submission. The win was Suarez’s fourth professional MMA bout.

An accomplished wrestler, Suarez’s UFC career has been plagued by injuries. Those injuries have limited Suarez to seven UFC outings. She went from June 2019 to February 2023 without a fight.

Suarez returned to action at in late February 2023, scoring a submission win over Montana De La Rosa. She followed that with a August 2023 submission win over former champ Jessica Andrade in August 2023.

The injury bug visited Suarez again in December 2023 when she was booked to face Amanda Lemos at UFC 298.

Suarez has been strategic in her plans to return since her first long layoff. Something she discussed with MMA Fighting.

“The good thing is that there’s nothing actually anatomically wrong with my knee,” Suarez said. “So that’s a good thing. But I just didn’t want to go ahead and try to push through something that wasn’t doing what it [was supposed to], because my knee was really inflamed and I didn’t want to try to grapple through something and then actually hurt my knee badly. Because it is the knee that I had surgery on, so I just didn’t want to go ahead and mess with that, especially because my actual injury was so severe. I mean, I tore every ligament in my knee.

“I have cadavers, they’re not my actual ligaments, so I didn’t want to do something kind of similar to the Nina Ansaroff thing where I pushed through the injury, I went and fought, and then it got worse in the fight, and then I had to be out for a couple years. I just didn’t want that to happen to me again. I learned my lesson the first time and I was like, ‘I’m not going to do that.’ But if it was something where I could train and just go hard, I would have just fought with it. But it just wasn’t working out for me. We tried everything.”

UFC 312 Fight Card Preview: Zhang Weili Vs. Tatiana Suarez Betting Odds

When this title fight was first announced during the UFC 310 broadcast, Zhang was the -250 betting favorite over Suarez, who came in as the +210 betting underdog. The UFC 312 co-main event betting line has shifted considerably since then. Today the fight is a pick ’em. Zhang is listed at -105 and Suarez is -115.

*Odds via BetOnline

UFC 312 Fight Card Preview: Zhang Weili Vs. Tatiana Suarez Significant Stats

Zhang lands 5.66 significant strikes per minute with an accuracy of 53 percent. Her striking defense is 53 percent and she absorbs 3.15 significant strikers per minute. The champ lands 2.51 takedowns per 15 minutes. Her takedown accuracy is 46 percent, while her takedown defense is 50 percent.

Suarez lands 4.27 significant striker per minute with an accuracy of 63 percent. Her striking defense is 51 percent and she absorbs 1.38 significant strikes per minute. Suarez averages 6.20 takedowns per 15 minutes with a takedown accuracy of 61 percent. Her takedown defense is 100 percent.

UFC 312 Fight Card Preview: Zhang Weili Vs. Tatiana Suarez Prediction And Pick

This is a striker vs. wrestler matchup. The outcome of the UFC 312 co-main event will come down to which fighter can implement their game plan. With Zhang coming off a fight where she was taken down three times on three attempts against a fighter without the wrestling chops of Suarez, my bet is the challenger will be the one dictating where the fight takes place, especially since this is scheduled to go five rounds.

The betting pick is for Tatiana Suarez to beat Zhang Weili and capture the UFC strawweight title with a submission.

UFC 312 Date

Saturday, February 8, 2025

UFC 312 Location

Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia

UFC 312 Time

Early Prelims (6:00 p.m. ET), Prelims (8:00 p.m. ET), PPV Card (10:00 p.m. ET)

UFC 312 How to Watch or Stream

Early Prelims (UFC Fight Pass, ESPN+), Prelims (ESPN2, ESPN+), PPV Card (ESPN+ PPV)

Stay tuned for more coverage from UFC 312, as well as results, reactions, recaps on fight night.