This article is part of our UFC Picks series.
UFC 312 Main Card Expert Picks
Titles in the men’s middleweight and women’s strawweight divisions headline Saturday’s card in Sydney, Australia.
As a reminder, the following selections are purely picks. If you’re looking for betting or fantasy-specific breakdowns of these fights, check out the following articles on WagerKey:
UFC 312 DraftKings Preview
UFC 312 Betting Preview
UFC 312 Fight by Fight Breakdowns
UFC 312 Multi-Site DFS Preview
We also have a MMA DFS Lineup Optimizer to try if you’re looking to try out different combinations of fighters or generate multiple lineups, plus UFC 312 odds from every major sportsbook.
| MATCHUP |
WEIGHT CLASS |
JON | JAKE | CHRIS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (C) Dricus Du Plessis (-205) vs. Sean Strickland (+170) |
Middleweight |
Du Plessis | Du Plessis | |
| (C) Zhang Weili (-110) vs. Tatiana Suarez (-110) |
Women’s |
Zhang | Zhang | |
| Justin Tafa (+130) vs. Tallison Teixeira (-155) |
Heavyweight |
Teixeira | Teixeira | |
| Jimmy Crute (+140) vs. Rodolfo Bellato (-170) |
Light |
|||
| Jake Matthews (-220) vs. Francisco Prado (+180) |
Welterweight |
Matthews | Matthews | |
| UFC 312 RECORD | 3-2 | 3-2 | 2-3 | |
| 2025 RECORD | 5-3 | 5-3 | 2-6 | |
| 2025 PERCENTAGE | .625 | .625 | .250 | |
| 2024 RECORD | 45-19 | 41-23 | 39-25 | |
| 2024 PERCENTAGE | .703 | .641 | .610 | |
| 2023 RECORD | 42-25 | 44-23 | 35-32 | |
| 2023 PERCENTAGE | .627 | .657 | .522 | |
| 2022 RECORD | 34-27 | 40-21 | 25-26 | |
| 2022 PERCENTAGE | .557 | .656 | .490 | |
| 2021 RECORD | 35-28 | 42-21 | 37-26 | |
| 2021 PERCENTAGE | .556 | .667 | .586 | |
| 2020 RECORD | 36-18 | 34-20 | 28-26 | |
| 2020 PERCENTAGE | .667 | .630 | .519 | |
| 2019 RECORD | 39-19 | 35-23 | 32-26 | |
| 2019 PERCENTAGE | .672 | .603 | .552 | |
| ALL-TIME | 331-201 | 338-194 | 267-211 | |
| ALL-TIME PERCENTAGE | .622 | .635 | .559 |
|
MATCHUP |
WEIGHT |
JOE |
COLE | DRAKE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (C) Dricus Du Plessis (-205) vs. Sean Strickland (+170) |
Middleweight |
Strickland | Du Plessis | Du Plessis |
| (C) Zhang Weili (-110) vs. Tatiana Suarez (-110) |
Women’s |
Zhang | Suarez | Zhang |
| Justin Tafa (+130) vs. Tallison Teixeira (-155) |
Heavyweight |
Teixeira | Teixeira | Teixeira |
| Jimmy Crute (+140) vs. Rodolfo Bellato (-170) |
Light |
|||
| Jake Matthews (-220) vs. Francisco Prado (+180) |
Welterweight |
Matthews | Matthews | Matthews |
| UFC 312 RECORD | 4-1 | 4-1 | 4-1 | |
| 2025 RECORD | 7-1 | 5-3 | 2-1 | |
| 2025 PERCENTAGE | .875 | .625 | .750 | |
| 2024 RECORD | 40-24 | 40-24 | 43-21 | |
| 2024 PERCENTAGE | .625 | .625 | .672 | |
| 2023 RECORD | 41-26 | 44-23 | 36-31 | |
| 2023 PERCENTAGE | .612 | .657 | .537 | |
| 2022 RECORD | 38-23 | 39-22 | 39-22 | |
| 2022 PERCENTAGE | .623 | .639 | .639 | |
| 2021 RECORD | 38-25 | 43-21 | 17-14 | |
| 2021 PERCENTAGE | .603 | .672 | .548 | |
| 2020 RECORD | 36-18 | N/A | N/A | |
| 2020 PERCENTAGE | .667 | N/A | N/A | |
| 2019 RECORD | 34-24 | N/A | N/A | |
| 2019 PERCENTAGE | .586 | N/A | N/A | |
| ALL-TIME | 271-160 | 168-91 | 141-90 | |
| ALL-TIME PERCENTAGE | .629 | .647 | .610 |
THE PICKERS
Jon Litterine: WagerKey lead MMA beat writer and scribe for our weekly DrafKings preview. Lead analyst on the WagerKey MMA Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @JonLitterine.
Jake Letarski: WagerKey.com Operations Manager, plus MMA and NCAA Hoops Senior Editor. Host on the WagerKey MMA Podcast and guest on the WagerKey Fantasy Football Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @RotoJake.
Chris Olson: Contributor at WagerKey to “Fight IQ, presented by WagerKey,” as well as The MMA Mashup, DFS Baseball, a MMA gambling columnist and fight recaps. Follow him on Twitter at @RealChrisOlson.
Joe “SunTszu”: Known more commonly by his Twitter handle @SunTszu, Joe is a Hedge Fund Executive by day and high-volume DFS player by night. He is a 2x “Bracket Challenge” & “Gotham qualifier. You can also find him as one of the original contributors of “Fight IQ, presented by WagerKey,” a DFS-centric video breakdown. He is also a co-creator of the “Creating Alpha in DFS” podcast.
Cole Shelton: Cole Shelton is a full-time sports writer focusing on MMA. His work has appeared on BJPenn.com, CBC Sports, Sports Betting Dime and Blue Jays Nation. He currently pens the MMA Best Bets column on WagerKey. Follow him on Twitter at @ColeShelton91.
Drake Burden: Drake is a proven DFS winner with multiple four-figure paydays under his belt. He took an interest to writing MMA during the pandemic and is active in various Discords and other social media communities. Follow him on Twitter at @DBurdz.
