The first UFC pay-per-view of 2025 turned out to be a rough night at the office for several undefeated fighters. Four men walked into the Intuit Dome in California for UFC 311 without an 0 to their name. By the time the event had concluded, all of them had lost their perfect records, with some of them dropping their zeros after complete blowout performances by their opponents. From preliminary card main attraction Payton Talbott to 135-lb title challenger Umar Nurmagomedov, some of the most promising unbeaten names in the bantamweight and flyweight divisions tasted defeat for the first time.
Clayton Carpenter
In his first two years in the promotion, 125-lb prospect Clayton Carpenter picked up two submission wins, including a Performance of the Night-winning effort opposite Lucas Rocha. In total, both of his opponents’ records amounted to a staggering 21-2. While his lack of activity has held his momentum back somewhat, as he only competed just once in 2023 and 2024, Carpenter was still seen as a top prospect in the weight class.
His foe at UFC 311, Tagir Ulanbekov, was in a similar situation, having made just three trips to the Octagon in the past three years, losing a controversial unanimous decision to Tim Elliott and choking out both Nate Maness and Cody Durden. Originally meant to fight two times last year against Alex Perez and Joshua Van, the Russian remained sidelined throughout 2024 after a failed rebooking with the former and missing weight versus the latter.
Despite both individuals coming off considerable layoffs, the two flyweights kicked off the night’s festivities with a fun opening bout on the early preliminary card. Using his superior striking speed, Carpenter battered Ulanbekov’s leg repeatedly and even landed a few solid jabs. However, it was the wrestling of the Dagestani that proved to be the deciding factor in this contest, as Ulanbekov garnered over six minutes of control time. While the American put up a solid effort in the stand up and grappling department, it wasn’t enough, as Ulanbekov got his hand raised after logging nearly perfect scores across all three judge’s score cards.
Rinya Nakamura
After securing a contract on the Road to UFC by stopping Shohei Nose, Rinya Nakamura impressed in droves in his company debut by knocking out his countryman Toshiomi Kazama in just 33 seconds. He then went on to claim two unanimous decision victories over Fernie Garcia and Ultimate Fighter veteran Carlos Vera. In all of his UFC appearances so far, Nakamura had always been a monumental favorite, including being a -1400 over in his bout versus Vera.
In contrast to his Japanese adversary, Muin Gafurov’s run in the UFC looked to be in dire straits. Losing his first two fights in the promotion, “Tajik” finally achieved his first win in the Octagon via unanimous decision in his June 2024 clash with Kyung Ho Kang.
Heading into his meeting with Nakamura, Gafurov was viewed as a heavy underdog, with many expecting the seemingly more skilled “Hybrid” to make easy work of the Tajikistani. That wasn’t to be the case, though, as Gafurov put on possibly the greatest performance of his career by crashing Nakamura’s hype train, pelting the Japanese with several hard shots and even dropping him. In the biggest upset of the early preliminaries, Gafurov ended up securing what looked to be a relatively easy unanimous decision.
Payton Talbott
Since receiving his UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series back in 2023, Payton Talbott had gone both completely unblemished and unchallenged in the UFC. In his first full year alone in the company, the 26-year old phenom recorded three finishes, each over other 135-lb prospects in Nick Aguirre, Cameron Saiiman, and Yanis Ghemmouri.
For almost seven years, Raoni Barcelos has remained one of the bantamweight classe’s most grizzled names. Starting his UFC tenure with a third round knockout over future Ultimate Fighter champion Kurt Holobaugh, the Brazilian wrestling specialist had accrued an overall company record of 7-4, with notable losses to future divisional title challenger Umar Nurmagomedov and Kyler Phillips. While he was in the midst of a two-bout losing streak, Barcelos rebounded in great fashion by submitting Cristian Quiñonez last February.
In his battle with the South American, Talbott was easily one of the biggest betting favorites on the entire card. Barcelos didn’t appear to get the memo, however, as the Brazilian thoroughly dismantled the Nevada native throughout the three round contest, even nearly choking out him in the first round. While Talbott did manage to land some hard shots on his opponent, Barcelos’ grappling proved to be far too much to handle for the young prospect. In a gigantic upset, Barcelos took home the unanimous decision victory and also a newfound appreciation from possibly the entire MMA community.
Umar Nurmagomedov
Embarking on perhaps the quickest rise to title contention in UFC bantamweight history, Umar Nurmagomedov found himself competing in his first championship match after defeating just one ranked contender. Back in the Middle East last year, the streaking Dagestani sensation notched the biggest win of his career to date after taking a competitive unanimous decision over two-time title challenger Cory Sandhagen. Looking to have the highest-level of wrestling in the division, Nurmagomedov was billed as the toughest matchup for reigning 135-lb champion Merab Dvalishvili.
Throughout his ten-fight win streak at bantamweight (11 overall), Dvalishvili has put together a highly-stacked resume of victories over some of the greatest fighters to ever compete in the weight class, including Petr Yan, José Aldo, Henry Cejudo, and Sean O’Malley. Against the latter, in particular, the Georgian cruised his way to a unanimous decision win after dominating “Suga” for almost their entire five-round contest at UFC 306.
In the early rounds of their championship tilt, Nurmagomedov blasted Dvalishvili with strong punches and kicks that looked to have rocked the champion at one point in the first round. However, living up to his nickname, “The Machine”, Dvalishvili kept his foot on the gas pedal for the rest of the fight, constantly pressuring the Russian with nonstop takedown attempts and volleys of punches. For the first time, Nurmagomedov appeared lost and exhausted, as by the time the championship rounds were upon him, he was getting taken down more and more, while Dvalishvili looked absolutely fresh.
In the end, it was the incumbent who got his hand raised by unanimous decision, while also surpassing UFC legend Georges St-Pierre for the most takedowns landed in promotional history with 92.