$re = '/<span(?=\s)(?=(?:[^>"\']|"[^"]*"|\'[^\']*\')*?\sstyle\s*=\s*(?:([\'"])(?:(?!\1)[\S\s])*?font-weight:700(?:(?!\1)[\S\s])*\1))\s+(?:"[\S\s]*?"|\'[\S\s]*?\'|[^>]*?)+>([\S\s]*?)<\/span\s*>/';
$str = '<p><span style="color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:700;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial";font-style:normal">Strong content</span></p><ul><li><span style="color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial";font-style:normal">list item</span></li><li><span style="color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial";font-style:normal">list item</span></li><li><span style="color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial";font-style:normal">list item</span></li><li><span style="color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial";font-style:normal">list item</span></li><li><span style="color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial";font-style:normal">list item</span></li><li><span style="color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial";font-style:normal">list item</span></li></ul><p><span style="color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial";font-style:normal">Content text</span></p><p><span style="color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial";font-style:normal">Content text</span></p><p><span style="color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial";font-style:normal">Content text</span></p><p><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:700">Should be bold</span><span style="color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial";font-style:normal">: regular text</span></p><p><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:700">Should be bold</span><span style="color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial";font-style:normal">: regular text </span></p><p><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:700">Should be bold</span><span style="color:#2c2c2c;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial";font-style:normal">: regular text</span></p>';
$subst = "<strong>$2</strong>";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php