Preview: UFC 312 ‘Du Plessis vs. Strickland 2’

Light Heavyweights

Rodolfo Bellato (12-2, 1-0 UFC) vs. Jimmy Crute (12-4-1, 4-4-1 UFC)

ODDS: Bellato (-162), Crute (+136)

Crute returns after a year and a half layoff, which hopefully means some excitement. Crute had some steam as a top prospect ahead of his UFC debut in 2018 despite some questions about his level of competition, and things started well enough for “The Brute” inside the Octagon. Paul Craig and Sam Alvey were one-dimensional opponents, but Crute impressively navigated the trickiness of their games for someone with so little high-level experience. However, Crute did eventually hit a clear athletic ceiling that his aggressive approach couldn’t overcome, particularly in his last handful of fights. Crute got quickly knocked out by Jamahal Hill and survived some early trouble to salvage a draw against Alonzo Menifield, then got finished when the UFC decided to run the Menifield fight back. It’s unclear how exactly Crute can get over that hump, but after stepping away from the sport for an indeterminate amount of time, it will be interesting to see if he comes back with any new tricks against Bellato.

Bellato is coming off of his own year-plus layoff, having made his UFC debut against Ihor Potieria in late 2023. Heading into that fight, Bellato was an interesting talent with some clear potential pitfalls. He showed a lot of skills given the opportunity to build some momentum, but his two losses—both to fellow eventual UFC signee Vitor Petrino—showed that the Brazilian might not be equipped to stay on the rails when things start turning against him. That made his win over Potieria a mixed bag. It’s probably not a good sign that he nearly got finished by Potieria, who showed little during his time inside the UFC, but it did at least mark an instance of Bellato staging an impressive comeback. He will need to repeat that trick here, since Crute figures to be aggressive from the jump and it’s essentially a coinflip as to who winds up winning a race to the finish. Crute at least has shown more historical comfort when things get chaotic, so the Australian gets the nod. The pick is Crute via second-round stoppage.

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Du Plessis vs. Strickland
Zhang vs. Suarez
Teixeira vs. Tafa
Bellato vs. Crute
Matthews vs. Prado
The Prelims