Sean Strickland Keeps Pound-for-Pound Ranking Despite UFC
Du Plessis won by unanimous decision and retained the middleweight belt. Strickland therefore left Sydney as a former champion, even though his name remained in a cross-division ranking poll shortly after the event.
The video above is Strickland’s post-fight reaction. The result was clear on the scorecards: 50–45, 50–45, and 49–46 for Du Plessis. The South African champion controlled much of the five-round rematch and secured his second successful title defense. Strickland showed resilience, but the bout was not against Pereira and it was not a defense of Strickland’s own championship.
A ranking is not a title
The UFC’s pound-for-pound list ranks fighters across weight classes. The promotion says its rankings are voted on by media members, who assess the best UFC athletes regardless of division. It is a judgment list, not a belt, and a fighter can remain on it after losing a bout. Strickland’s continued placement did not mean he remained middleweight champion or that the result was being overturned.
That distinction matters because the initial article repeatedly calls Strickland champion after the fight and suggests his title remained secure. Neither is accurate. Du Plessis entered UFC 312 as champion, won their rematch, and left with the belt. Strickland’s past title win over Israel Adesanya and prior performances could still inform a pound-for-pound vote, but they did not change the outcome in Sydney.
The ranking was also short-lived. After UFC 313 in March 2025, the UFC’s updated men’s pound-for-pound list removed Strickland from its top 15. The rankings can shift when new results arrive, so the February headline described only a brief moment after UFC 312, not a lasting guarantee of his place among the promotion’s best.
Strickland’s career moved on
Strickland’s defeat did not erase his earlier achievements. He won the UFC middleweight title by defeating Adesanya at UFC 293 in September 2023, then lost it to Du Plessis by split decision at UFC 297. Their UFC 312 rematch produced a wider unanimous decision. Those are distinct chapters in the same rivalry, and keeping the opponents and outcomes straight is essential to understanding why the rankings changed.
As of the UFC’s current fighter profile, Strickland has since returned to the men’s pound-for-pound list and is listed as middleweight titleholder after his May 2026 win over Khamzat Chimaev. That later status should not be confused with what happened in February 2025: at UFC 312 he failed to regain the belt; du Plessis remained champion, while the ranking panel temporarily kept his name on its list.
The useful takeaway from UFC 312 is therefore about how rankings work, rather than a claim that Strickland’s title position survived the loss. A media-voted P4P list can reflect a fighter’s broader body of work for a time. The official contest result still decides who holds the championship, and on that night Du Plessis remained the middleweight champion.
Sources: UFC 312 official results; UFC 312 scorecards; UFC ranking methodology and current list; March 2025 report on Strickland leaving the P4P top 15; Strickland’s official UFC profile and record.
