Dricus Du Plessis and the Real Winners and Losers from UFC 305

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This one was legit.

Though combat sports media tours and weigh-ins are frequently dotted with apparently venomous confrontations between main-event combatants, the enmity between Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya seemed pretty authentic.

The elite middleweights had their names in one another's mouths for a few years, and now that Du Plessis has ascended to the 185-pound title that Adesanya had held across two reigns from 2019 to 2023, a long-awaited confrontation was finally cued up.

They met for the championship atop UFC 305, a 12-bout show at the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia headlined by a five-bout pay-per-view portion that went live at 10 p.m. ET.

It was Du Plessis' first title defense since dethroning Sean Strickland -- the man who beat Adesanya -- by split decision at UFC 297 in January. Adesanya had not fought since his shocking loss to Strickland, by unanimous decision, at UFC 293 last September.

The B/R combat team was in position to take in the show and deliver a real-time list of its definitive winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.

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Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Dricus Du Plessis was bathing in the villainy.

He strutted around the cage, gestured to a partisan Israel Adesanya crowd like an old-school wrestling heel, and smiled as only an undisputed champion can smile.

It was fitting. Because he'd earned it.

The powerful South African endured three-plus rounds of precise striking from the former two-time middleweight king. But just when it seemed like it was slipping away from him, he responded with a series of hard shots that drove Adesanya to the ground and gave Du Plessis the opening for the rear-naked choke that drew a decisive tap at 3:38 of the fourth.

It was the champion's first defense of the belt he'd won from Sean Strickland in January, four months after Strickland had dethroned Adesanya.

"He's got a ton of heart, and he doesn't give up on himself," analyst Daniel Cormier said. "He doesn't veer. He just keeps fighting."

And if the post-fight chatter is accurate, he might be fighting another champion next.

The broadcast crew of Cormier, Jon Anik and Dominick Cruz discussed ex-middleweight champ Alex Pereira's apparent desire to return to 185 pounds, which could set up a mega-fight between them at some point in 2025. Pereira has a title defense at 205 pounds on the books later this year but suggests he can still make weight in his previous division.

"I don't Pereira ever wanted his middleweight story to end the way it did," Anik said, referencing the KO loss to Adesanya that preceded his jump to 205. "Can you imagine him and Dricus Du Plessis?"

Du Plessis, incidentally, has now beaten former/reigning champions Robert Whittaker, Strickland and Adesanya in succession and is 8-0 in the UFC.

"I just want to hear 'and still,'" he said. "I don't care about the opponent."

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If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Or, in Kai Kara-France's case, if the first two punches in your combination don't land to their desired effect, keep throwing bombs.

That's what the power-punching flyweight did in the late going of his first round with recent title challenger Steve Erceg – missing with a jab and grazing with a follow-up right hand before hitting paydirt with a step-through left that left his foe flat on his back.

Erceg rose and tried to evade further damage but failed, ultimately taking another hard shot along the fence that again sent him to the floor and forced the hand of referee Rich Mitchell at 4:04 of the first.

It was a 13th career KO and an eighth win in 12 UFC appearances for the 31-year-old New Zealander, who'd lost consecutive fights to Brandon Moreno and Amir Albazi since his most recent win over Askar Askarov on a Fight Night show in March 2022.

"We knew Steve was gonna be crafty," Kara-France said. "I couldn't just let the cannon go. I had to set it up."

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It's unique to combat sports and specifically the UFC.

Two athletes can almost literally beat one another to a bloody pulp and the brink of semi-consciousness over 15 minutes, then spend several more minutes shaking hands, embracing and congratulating one another for the pounds of flesh they claimed.

Lightweight rivals Dan Hooker and Mateusz Gamrot did so after a particularly brutal scrap that left Hooker with no fewer than four cuts around two swollen eyes, while Gamrot emerged with a left eye surrounded by reddened tissue that swelled badly late in the fight.

Both men will be in some pain come Sunday morning, but it'll be Gamrot feeling a bit worse for the wear thanks to a reed-thin split decision that went in Hooker's direction.

Judge Mick Meany saw it 29-28 for the fifth-ranked Pole but was overruled by Mark Christie and Ben Cartlidge, each of whom gave it to Hooker by the same score. All three judges gave Hooker the final round, providing a third straight victory and what'll certainly be a significant jump from his pre-fight ranking at No. 11.

Not to mention a shot at some significant foes in his post-fight promo.

"I can walk down any man in the world," he said. "I want them all. I want the BMF. I want Conor McGregor. I want everything."

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It's only been 30 months.

Back then, in February 2022 to be exact, Australian heavyweight Tai Tuivasa was the talk of the big-boy division, having dispatched divisional stalwart and hometown hero Derrick Lewis in two rounds at UFC 271 in Houston.

It was his fifth straight win in the promotion. His trademark "shoey" was becoming popular with a rowdy fan base. And a Cinderella run to a title shot seemed imminent.

But it's been a long 30 months.

Rather than building on the momentum, the fighter known as "Bam Bam" has struggled to find his way ever since and Saturday was no different as Tuivasa dropped a decision to Jairzinho Rozenstruik which was his fifth straight loss since the Lewis triumph.

It was announced as a split verdict thanks to a 30-27 card in Tuivasa's favor from Howie Booth that ranks as one of the worst in the promotion's recent history.

But it was correctly outweighed by 29-28 and 30-27 tallies in Rozenstruik's direction for his second straight win and ninth in 14 UFC fights.

"The judges, tonight, you've got to pay attention to what they're looking at," analyst Dominick Cruz said. "Some people are just confused, you know?"

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Carlos Prates was drawing rave reviews from the cage-side broadcast team midway through his main-card opener when they suggested he was one of the top five "most ready" graduates of Dana White's Contender Series.

Turns out they might have to ramp up the adjectives.

The Brazilian-based birthday boy turned 31 on Saturday and claimed what could be a career-defining moment as a present, pasting rugged veteran Li Jingliang with powerful strikes before putting him to sleep, literally, with a hard left hook at 4:02 of the second.

It was the 10th win in a row overall for Prates, his third straight in the UFC after a Contender Series win a year ago, and the sort of performance that is likely to put him in the conversation for a shot at a fighter ranked in the lower tier of the welterweight top 15.

Not to mention a couple of extra bucks, too.

"Today I'm really motivated because it's my birthday," he said. "I think this was a really good performance -- 50 K would be a really good present."

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It was about brother vs. brother in the cage.

But within moments of the unusual ending to the heavyweight bout matching Junior Tafa and Valter Walker, it was more about analyst vs. analyst on the outside.

Walker, the sibling of Brazilian light heavyweight Johnny Walker, scored a win for the family name when he locked in a late first-round heel hook that drew a scream from Tafa that was interpreted by referee Steve Perceval as a verbal submission at 4:56.

Tafa didn't agree with the curtain drop and continued the scrap with Walker in the immediate aftermath, going forehead to forehead with him and ending the confrontation with a walkaway smack across the face.

It didn't come to blows on the outside, but there was some broadcast table dissension when Dominick Cruz railed about Perceval, suggesting that "The refs have the opportunity to take the opportunity from us," which prompted cohort Daniel Cormier to reply with "You can be mad if you want to, but he yelled from the pain and that sounds like a verbal to me."

Blow-by-blow man Jon Anik soon provided context that supported Cormier's point when he relayed information from veteran official John McCarthy that confirmed that "a scream is interpreted (by referees) as a submission."

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It all came down to the third round.

The featherweight bout between wannabe ranked contenders Josh Culibao and Ricardo Ramos was tied, rightfully, on all three scorecards heading into the final five minutes.

And as the Australia-based Culibao controlled the early going in the third with superior striking against a foe whose left leg had been badly compromised by calf kicks, it seemed he'd provide a third straight win for Down Under fighters against Brazilians in the show's prelim portion.

But Ramos wasn't ready to concede.

He managed his only takedown of the fight with 90 seconds left, and, though he was unable to near a submission or land significant strikes from the position, it was enough to sway judges Mark Christie and Mick Meany into giving him the third round and thus a split decision with which Culibao did not agree.

Judge Ben Cartlidge saw it for Culibao and the B/R card was on his side, too, giving him the third and a 29-28 edge with it. It was Culibao's fourth loss in eight UFC fights (3-4-1) and it ended a two-fight skid for Ramos and lifted him to 8-5.

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It wasn't your garden variety knockout.

But that doesn't mean Jack Jenkins isn't happy to have scored it.

The 30-year-old Australian featherweight punished Brazilian rival Herbert Burns in every conceivable fashion across the first 10 minutes of their scheduled three-rounder, but it was a specific combination of damage that ended it early in the third.

Jenkins, who's already broken the legs of three previous opponents with kicks, blasted Burns with yet another to the left calf in the opening seconds of the third, then followed with a left hook to the body and an overhand right to the head that dumped his foe to the mat.

A series of ground strikes followed before Jenkins, aware of Burns' ability to chase submissions on the floor, wisely stood up and invited Burns to rise and resume the combat. But the stricken 36-year-old was unable to stand as he shifted to put weight on his left side and referee Marc Goddard stepped in to wave it off after 48 seconds.

"I put in the work to get back here," said Jenkins, who broke an arm during a TKO loss to Chepe Mariscal last September. "People count you out, but I was like, 'F--k that, I'm here to win.'"

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It's already a tough way to make a living.

But getting punched, kicked and choked has got to feel even more arduous when other things – like career momentum and international travel – are going against you, too.

That's the reality for the only two Americans on Saturday's show, Ricky Glenn and Alex Reyes, a pair of guys in their mid/late 30s – neither of whom has won a fight in the last three years – who traveled more than 20,000 combined miles to take hellacious beatings against either locally-based or nearby competition.

Glenn, a 37-year-old from Iowa, left with cuts around his eyes and a tennis-ball-sized lump on his forehead after a wide decision loss to China's Song Kenan. At the same time, Reyes, a 35-year-old from northern California, was beaten from fencepost to fencepost while losing nearly every moment of a three-rounder against Brisbane-based Tom Nolan.

Glenn has gone 0-3-1 since defeating Joaquim Silva in June 2021 and Reyes has been searching for a win for even longer, going 0-3 in the UFC since beating Gil Guardado in the Fight Club OC promotion on Aug. 24, 2017.

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Well, so much for zeroes.

Flyweight Stewart Nicoll was wide-eyed and excited to make his UFC debut as the only unbeaten fighter among 24 on the 12-bout card -- and he had some moments early against rugged Mexican rival Jesus Aguilar -- but the thrills didn't last for long.

The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt got Aguilar to the ground and seemed poised to chase his fourth career submission. Still, he was soon shaken off by his 28-year-old and found himself on the wrong end of a finish, going to sleep via guillotine choke within three minutes.

Aguilar had won eight straight fights upon reaching the octagon for the first time and getting finished in less than a round by Tatsuro Taira just 18 months ago.

He'd won two in a row since, though, and was unfazed by his role as a heavy underdog this time, instantly seizing Nicoll's neck after scrambling off the floor and ultimately drawing referee Steve Perceval's wave-off at 2:39.

Nicoll, the promotion's first fighter from the Solomon Islands, fell to 8-1 while Aguilar won a third straight to get to 11-2.

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Main Card

Dricus Du Plessis def. Israel Adesanya by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:38, Round 4

Kai Kara-France def. Steve Erceg by TKO (punches), 4:04, Round 1

Dan Hooker def. Mateusz Gamrot by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)

Jairzinho Rozenstruik def. Tai Tuivasa by split decision (29-28, 27-30, 30-27)

Carlos Prates def. Li Jingliang by KO (punch), 4:02, Round 2

Preliminary Card

Valter Walker def. Junior Tafa by verbal submission (heel hook), 4:56, Round 1

Ricardo Ramos def. Josh Culibao by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Casey O'Neill def. Luana Santos by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)

Jack Jenkins def. Herbert Burns by TKO (punches), 0:48, Round 3

Early Preliminary Card

Tom Nolan def. Alex Reyes by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Song Kenan def. Ricky Glenn by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 29-28)

Jesus Aguilar def. Stewart Nicoll by submission (guillotine choke), 2:39, Round 1