UFC 311 is right around the corner. While most sports fans this Saturday are going to be preoccupied by a full day and evening of football in the NFL‘s Divisional Playoffs, fans of competitive violence are going to be on cloud nine once Saturday rolls around.
MMA and bare-knuckle boxing are both on the menu and both the UFC and BKFC are making stops to California. The same evening as BKFC Pechanga, Intuit Dome in Inglewood, CA, the home venue of the Los Angeles Clippers, plays host to the first UFC pay-per-view of 2025.
UFC 311 takes place over the coming weekend from Intuit Dome, this after a few days of uncertainty surrounding the host arena for the show amid wildfires in Southern California. This past Sunday, just hours removed from UFC Vegas 101, UFC CEO Dana White mentioned the possibility of moving this weekend’s event to T-Mobile Arena if the situation necessitated a relocation.
UFC 311 Locked In For Inglewood Saturday
Earlier on in the week, during an interview on The Jim Rome Show on Westwood One Radio, White confirmed that it’s full-speed ahead for the pay-per-view event in California this weekend.
"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
“There’s no chance we move it [to Las Vegas],” White said. “We’ll be there Saturday, 100 percent.”
White mentioned that Southern Californians are eager to forget their troubles, if only for a few short hours, this weekend.
“That’s the kind of vibe that I’m getting from people that are going,” he continued. “They’re excited to go to the fights and not think about what’s going on.”
UFC 311 Featured Early Prelim: Bekoev Makes Promotional Debut vs. Reese
As far as the fights themselves go on Saturday night, there will be five early prelims to kick UFC 311 off beginning at 6 pm ET/ 3 pm PT from Intuit Dome. Inside the United States, you can view the early prelims on ESPN+ or UFC Fight Pass.
At the top of the bill in the early prelims, you’ll see a contest in the UFC’s middleweight division between Zachary Reese (8-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) and 21-fight veteran Azamat Bekoev (18-3 MMA, UFC promotional debut.) Reese enters the featured early prelim having posted a record of 4-1 in his last five contests and is currently on a two-fight winning streak.
Last time out, he bested Jose Medina (11-4 MMA, 0-1) via unanimous decision after 15 minutes of action at the Apex facility in Enterprise, NV. For the second time in as many fights, Zachary Reese will try to spoil a fighter’s UFC debut.
Across the way from Reese in the featured early prelim is the debuting Azamat Bekoev, who comes in with a 5-0 record in his last five contests. He’s on a six-fight winning streak going into UFC 311 and has a championship to his credit already.
Bekoev, an alumnus of the LFA, won the promotion’s middleweight strap in the summer of 2023 before unifying it that fall. After making a second defense of the championship at 185, he got “the call” from Dana White. How will his road to the UFC Middleweight Championship start on Saturday night?
UFC 311 Co-Featured Early Prelim: Rosa Battles Perez in Key Women’s Bantamweight Bout
The only all-ranked contest in the early prelims comes second from the top of the bill in this phase of UFC 311 at women’s bantamweight. No. 9 contender Karol Rosa (18-6 MMA, 7-3 UFC) makes her 11th walk to the famed Octagon to take on No. 13 contender Allin Perez (11-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC).
Rosa comes into the show with a record of 3-2 in her last five bouts, alternating wins and losses in her four latest bouts in MMA. Most recently, she scored a unanimous decision victory over Pannie Kianzad (16-9 MMA, 5-6 UFC) on Aug. 10 of last year at the Apex facility. Kianzad was cut from the UFC roster later that month and has since joined the Global Fight League ahead of next week’s draft.
To find the last time that Karol Rosa went on a sustained winning streak, you’d have to travel back in time to the period between March of 2019 and October of 2021, when she got her hand raised six times in succession.
In the other corner, Allin Perez has posted a mark of 4-1 since joining the UFC’s active roster in September of 2022. She’s won four fights in a row, including a first-round submission by way of arm-triangle choke versus Darya Zheleznyakova (9-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) during UFC Paris last September.
A win on Saturday night for Allin Perez would make it five in succession and she might receive a fight later on in the card if she emerges victorious here.
UFC 311 Early Prelims: Ricky Turcios Opens New Year vs. Bernardo Sopaj
Also on the early prelims on Saturday night from Intuit Dome is a battle at bantamweight, where Ricky Turcios (12-4 MMA, 2-2 UFC) walks into the cage to lock horns with Bernardo Sopaj (11-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC.) This is a rescheduling of a canceled bout from this past November.
Turcios and Sopaj were set to meet one another at the UFC Apex facility on Nov. 9 before the former encountered problems while cutting weight in preparation for the contest, necessitating the rebooking to Jan. 18. Ricky Turcios enters the UFC 311 early prelims on the strength of a 3-2 record in the last five fights that counted toward his professional MMA record.
Most recently, he sustained a second-round submission defeat via rear-naked choke at the hands of Raul Rosas Jr. (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) on June 8 during UFC Louisville inside the KFC Yum! Center on the University of Louisville’s campus, a fight that was itself rescheduled from February of last year. The February 2024 booking was scrubbed after Rosas fell ill prior to fight night.
In the other corner, Bernardo Sopaj comes in having posted a record of 3-2 in his last five fights, losing by flying knee last time out in the third round to Vinicius Oliveira (21-3 MMA, 2-0 UFC) in March of 2024. Will he get back to his winning ways this time.
Final Thoughts
Enjoy the UFC 311 early prelims on Saturday. Tell football to go to the bench.
