Ilia Topuria's brother Aleksandre wins debut at UFC 312 prelims

There’s a new Topuria on the scene in the UFC.

Aleksandre Topuria, the older brother of UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria, was successful in his organizational debut in a featured bout on the UFC 312 preliminary card.

Topuria earned a unanimous decision over Colby Thicknesse, a native of New South Wales, Australia, and a teammate of former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.

The top two featherweights in mixed martial arts served as cornermen for the bantamweight matchup at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.

The 29-year-old Topuria improved to 6-1 after sweeping the scorecards. He took a six-year hiatus from competition following a 2015 loss during which he helped his brother develop into a world champion before returning to the cage as a fighter in 2021.

Topuria, who has won four in a row since his comeback, has a similar fighting style to his brother, gliding along the canvas with smooth footwork and lateral movement. A little more patient, a little less explosive, but strong boxing and grappling and competent anywhere the action goes.

He rocked Thicknesse in the first round with an overhand right, the same punch Ilia Topuria used to knock Volkanovski out when they met at UFC 298 one year ago when Topuria ended Volkanovski’s run as 145-pound champion.

Thicknesse fell to 7-1 as a pro after suffering his first defeat. The 25-year-old accepted this fight on short notice after Topuria’s original opponent, Cody Haddon, withdrew with a foot injury.

In other action, Quillan Salkilld made quick work of Anshul Jubli in the opening preliminary bout.

Salkilld was the biggest betting favourite on the entire card and it showed as the Australian knocked out India’s Jubli with the first punch he landed.

At just 19 seconds, it was the second-fastest debut finish in UFC lightweight history. Terrance McKinney’s seven-second knockout of Matt Frevola at UFC 263 remains the record. Jubli protested the stoppage after falling to 1-2 at the UFC level with two consecutive knockout losses.

Salkilld was one of three 2024 Dana White’s Contender Series graduates to make his official UFC debut on the UFC 312 prelims. Jonathan Micallef also won his debut while Kody Steele lost his.

Steele was expelled from the ranks of the unbeaten by losing a fan-friendly 15-minute slugfest to Rongzhu.

The pair didn’t waste any time trading leather, brawling throughout the opening round and never backing down. Steele is a touted 155-pound prospect with a grappling base, but his striking game looked green. He was dropped by a Rongzhu jab early in the second round and was out-landed 126-59 in total strikes while absorbing 108 head strikes. 

Jonathan Micallef won a unanimous decision over Kevin Jousset with all three judges scoring the bout 29-28 for Micallef; he won the first two rounds and Jousset won the third and all scorecards.

Micallef dropped Jousset in the opening round with a head kick that was set up nicely with kicks to the body and legs. The Australian southpaw used a kick-heavy attack to thwart Jousset, a native of France who trains out of New Zealand. 

Wang Cong rebounded from a November stoppage loss to Gabriella Fernandes with a three-round dismantling of Bruna Brasil. Cong utilized her strong kickboxing background to pick apart Brasil on the feet, connecting on 103 of her 181 significant strike attempts.

Talented featherweights Jack Jenkins and Gabriel Santos headlined the prelims and put their respective skills on display with Brazil’s Santos coming out on top.

Australia’s Jenkins dropped Santos with a head kick in the first round to the delight of the crowd but was unable to close things out. He later had to defend a triangle-armbar attempt from Santos, who entered the bout as the betting favourite despite beginning his UFC career 1-2. In fairness to Santos, 28, his first two UFC scraps were against Lerone Murphy (a split decision loss) and David Onama (a short-notice TKO loss).

Santos took Jenkins down in the second round to regain the momentum heading into the final round, which began with Santos rocking Jenkins with a stiff front kick. Soon after Santos took Jenkins’ back and locked in a rear-naked choke with an adjusted grip and forced a tap from Jenkins.

Earlier on the card, Tom Nolan had the home crowd cheering after getting his hand raised following a hard-fought three rounds with Viacheslav Borshchev. The 24-year-old from Brisbane has now won three in a row.

A flyweight bout between Hyun Sung Park and Nyamjargal Tumendemberel was originally scheduled to take place but was cancelled prior to the official weigh-in due to what the organization announced was “weight management issues” with Tumendemberel.