Despite a tragic outbreak of wildfires across greater Los Angeles and a change to the main event just 24 hours before, UFC 311 proved to be an exciting kickoff to the 2025 pay-per-view schedule for the world's leading MMA promotion on Saturday.

Dvalishvili will also need to be mindful inside of scrambles given his propensity to expose his back when returning to standing positions. As Nurmagomedov has already shown in the octagon, the Dagestani fighter is incredibly systematic and effective when it comes to breaking down his opponents from rear mount and riding positions.

Islam Makhachev is not only the best fighter in the world, he's also the most accomplished lightweight champion in UFC history.

Umar Nurmagomedov was the perfect fighter in the early rounds against UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili. While fatigue did not make a coward of Nurmagomedov, it certainly caused his downfall at UFC 311 on Saturday as Dvalishvili outpointed his foe en route to a unanimous decision win (48-47, 48-47, 49-46) to retain the bantamweight title.

The co-main event of UFC 311 was a bantamweight title fight between defending champions Merab Dvalishvili and undefeated challenger Umar Nurmagomedov.

Something had to give Saturday night at Intuit Dome. In the UFC 311 co-main event, Merab Dvalishvili was making his first bantamweight title defense and riding an 11-fight winning streak. Umar Nurmagomedov entered the Octagon with his own eye-popping resume: Not only had the challenger never lost a fight in six UFC performances,

Merab Dvalishvili is inevitable. Despite Umar Nurmagomedov's best efforts in his first crack at UFC gold, Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) proved his championship metal by getting better as the fight reached deep waters.

UFC 311 took an unexpected major turn Friday morning, with Arman Tsarukyan withdrawing from his lightweight title fight against Islam Makhachev. A new UFC 311 main event is now set as Renato Moicano will step in to challenge Makhachev for the belt.