UFC 311 has resulted in a crazy week for MMA‘s top promotion. Let’s flashback to last Sunday, when due to wildfire concerns in Southern California, UFC CEO Dana White mentioned he had Las Vegas as a backup plan for the show.
White’s tune changed as the week progressed. In an interview on Westwood One Radio’s The Jim Rome Show, he reaffirmed his plans to hold UFC 311 at Intuit Dome as scheduled on Saturday night.
"There's no chance we move it. We'll be there Saturday, 100%."@DanaWhite on providing an escape for fans in SoCal at the Intuit Dome for @UFC 311 pic.twitter.com/uq0QgGKCuW
— Jim Rome (@jimrome) January 15, 2025
Everything seemed to be business as usual for the first UFC pay-per-view on the schedule for 2025, until the official weigh-ins took place earlier this morning.
UFC 311 Main Eventer Out of Action
During Friday morning’s weigh-ins, No. 1 contender Arman Tsarukyan (22-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC), who was slated to challenge Islam Makhachev (26-1 MMA, 15-1 UFC) for the latter’s UFC Lightweight Championship in the main event of the evening, was forced out of action due to sustaining a back injury.
Dana White revealed that No. 10 contender Renato Moicano (20-5-1 MMA, 12-5 UFC), originally scheduled to verse Beneil Dariush (22-6-1 MMA, 16-6-1 UFC, has entered the main event on 36 hours’ notice to salvage the headliner. No efforts were made to secure a new opponent for Dariush ahead of tomorrow’s show.
BREAKING NEWS!!!!
Makhachev will now be facing Moicano for the lightweight title. #UFC311 is LIVE TOMORROW on @ESPNPlus PPV! pic.twitter.com/2JZevvpQP2
— danawhite (@danawhite) January 17, 2025
Prior to Tsarukyan’s withdrawal from the main event of the evening, Makhachev was within the allowable weight at 154 1/2 lbs. Moicano had no hassle at the scales today, registering a weight of 155 lbs exactly.
UFC 311 Co-Main Event A Go
The first half of Saturday’s title fight twin-bill is also locked in after Friday’s weigh-ins. Tomorrow evening’s co-main event for the UFC Bantamweight Championship will proceed after both champion Merab Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) and challenger Umar Nurmagomedov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) weighed in at 134 lbs and 135 lbs, respectively.
More shuffling was made ahead of the card. A scheduled prelim at heavyweight between No. 6 contender Jailton Almeida (21-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) and No. 7 contender Serghei Spivac (17-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC) was promoted to the main card, along with a middleweight contest on the prelims pitting Zachary Reese (8-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) against Azamat Bekoev (18-3 MMA, UFC promotional debut) getting shifted to the later portion of the undercard.
UFC 311 Weigh-In Results:
UFC 311 Main Card: (10 pm ET/ 7 pm PT, ESPN+ PPV)
Main Event: UFC Lightweight Championship: Islam Makhachev (154 1/2 lbs) vs. Renato Moicano (155 lbs)
Co-Main Event: UFC Bantamweight Championship: Merab Dvalishvili (134 lbs) vs. Umar Nurmagomedov (135 lbs)
Light Heavyweight: Jiri Prochazka (204 1/2 lbs) vs. Jamahal Hill (205 1/2 lbs)
Heavyweight: Jailton Almeida (235 lbs) vs. Serghei Spivac (233 lbs)
Middleweight: Kevin Holland (183 1/2 lbs) vs. Reinier de Ridder (184 1/2 lbs)
UFC 311 Late Prelims (8 pm ET/ 5 pm PT, FX and ESPN+)
Featured Prelim: Bantamweight: Payton Talbott (134 1/2 lbs) vs. Raoni Barcelos (135 1/2 lbs)
Co-Featured Prelim: Middleweight: Zachary Reese (185 1/2 lbs) vs. Azamat Bekoev (185 1/2 lbs)
Light Heavyweight: Bogdan Guskov (205 1/2 lbs) vs. Billy Elekana (200 lbs)
Lightweight: Grant Dawson (156 lbs) vs. Diego Ferreira (156 lbs)
UFC 311 Early Prelims: (6 pm ET/ 3 pm PT, FX, ESPN+ and UFC Fight Pass)
Featured Early Prelim: Women’s Bantamweight: Karol Rosa (135 1/2 lbs) vs. Allin Perez (135 lbs)
Co-Featured Early Prelim: Bantamweight: Rinya Nakamura (135 1/2 lbs) vs. Muin Gafurov (136 lbs)
Bantamweight: Ricky Turcios (136 lbs) vs. Bernardo Sopaj (135 lbs)
Flyweight: Tagir Ulanbekov (125 1/2 lbs) vs. Clayton Carpenter (125 1/2 lbs)
