Championship Gold On The Line
The first UFC pay-per-view event of 2025 looks set to be an exceptional one. Two title fights have been confirmed for UFC 311 which goes down at the newly-built Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California on Saturday, January 18th.
Islam Makhachev (26-1) will defend his lightweight crown against Arman Tsarukyan (22-3) in the main event, in a rematch of their 2019 meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia. Makhachev emerged victorious on that occasion against Tsarukyan who was making his UFC debut on short notice and the pair collected ‘performance of the night’ bonuses for their efforts.
Tsarukyan has won nine of his ten bouts inside the Octagon since that first meeting and will now challenge for Makhachev’s belt after taking out some credentialled opponents during his rise through the rankings. An impressive knockout victory over Beneil Dariush in December 2023 was followed up with a split-decision win over former champion Charles Oliveira at UFC 300 earlier this year.
A Surprise Announcement
While the announcement of the UFC 311 main event was to be expected, the news that Merab Dvalishvili (18-4) will defend his bantamweight title against Umar Nurmagomedov (18-0) certainly came as somewhat of a surprise. “The Machine” won the belt when he defeated Sean O’Malley in dominant fashion at UFC 306 at The Sphere in September but he has seemed completely disinterested in the idea of facing the unbeaten Dagestani in his first title defense.
As recently as last week, the Georgian was floating the idea of reamtching Petr Yan in the new year, following Yan’s impressive victory over Deiveson Figueiredo and has also spoken repeatedly about a possible rematch against O’Malley, leading to much frustration within the Nurmagomedov camp.
Nurmagomedov gatecrashed his way into the title discussion via an impressive five-round victory over Cory Sandhagen in Abu Dhabi in August and the unbeaten prospect may well possess the antidote to the takedown-heavy high-pressure style that Dvalishvili has used to work his way to the top of the bantamweight pile.
The Rest Of The Card
Beneil Dariush (22-6-1) vs. Renato Moicano (20-5-1) Lightweight
Jailton Almeida (21-3) vs. Serghei Spivac (17-4) Heavyweight
Jiri Prochazka (30-5-1) vs. Jamahal Hill (12-2) Light heavyweight
Kevin Holland (26-12) vs. Reinier De Ridder (18-2) Middleweight
Rinya Nakamura (9-0) vs. Muin Gafarov (19-6) Bantamweight
Johnny Walker (21-9) vs. Bogdan Guskov (16-3) Light heavyweight
Karol Rosa (18-6) vs. Ailin Perez (11-2) Bantamweight
Zach Reese (8-1) vs. Sedriques Dumas (10-2) Middleweight
Payton Talbott (9-0) vs. Raoni Barcelos (18-5) Bantamweight
Ricky Turcios (12-4) vs. Bernardo Sopaj (11-3)
Grant Dawson (22-2-1) vs. Diego Ferreira (19-5) Lightweight
