PERTH, AUSTRALIA – FEBRUARY 12: Islam Makhachev of Russia reacts after his victory over Alexander Volkanovski of Australia within the UFC light-weight championship combat throughout the UFC 284 occasion at RAC Area on February 12, 2023 in Perth, Australia. (Photograph by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC through Getty Pictures)
The UFC will kick 2025 off with a bang with two title on the road within the promotion’s first PPV of the 12 months.
UFC light-weight champion Islam Makhachev will defend his title in a rematch in opposition to #1 contender Arman Tsarukyan. Within the co-main occasion newly topped bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili will defend his belt in opposition to Umar Nurmagomedov.
Makhachev (26-1) final fought in June when he submitted Dustin Poirier at UFC 302. Outdoors of his lone loss coming by the hands of Adriano Martins in 2015 the Dagestan product hasn’t confronted an excessive amount of adversity main into and through his title run.
Makhachev seemingly would have defended in opposition to Tsarukyan in late 2024, however a
Tsarukyan (22-3) will experience a 4-fight win streak into the combat. The Armenian fighter holds victories over Charles Oliveira, Beneil Dariush, Joaquim Silva, Matt Frevola and Olivier Aubin-Mercier to call just a few.
This would be the second time the 2 will meet within the octagon having final fought in 2019. Makhachev emerged victorious by determination.
Within the co-main occasion Dvalishvili will stage his first title protection agains the #1 contender Nurmagomedov. Dvalishvili has been hounded on social media by followers calling for him to defend in opposition to Nurmagomedov. Dvalishvili most well-liked matchups with Petr Yan or a second dance with Sean O’Malley.
It appear he’s grown uninterested in the criticism.
“Merab came into the office late last night. Told us that he is tired of listening to Umar disrespect him and wanted to make this fight happen as soon as possible,” White stated within the announcement video on social media.
“We called Umar. He was sleeping in Dagestan. He said hell yes anywhere, anytime.”
Dvalishvili (18-4) is coming off his first title victory having taken the belt off of O’Malley at UFC 306, also called Noche UFC, in September. He needed to put collectively an 8-fight win streak to lastly get the shot on the belt.
Nurmagomedov (18-0) is but to be defeated in his skilled MMA profession and is coming off a win over Cory Sandhagen in August. He holds wins over Sandhagen, Bezkat Almakhan, Raoni Barcelos, and Brian Kelleher to call just a few.
UFC 311 takes place on Jan 18 on the Intuin Dome in Los Angeles, CA.
