The UFC’s first pay-per-view event of 2025 was a wild one, with the main card in Inglewood, California delivering a spectacular night of fights, culminating in two statement-making performances by the two defending champions, who retained their titles in very different ways.
In the main event, Islam Makhachev successfully retained his lightweight title with a first-round submission of late replacement challenger Renato Moicano.
Moicano stepped in on one day’s notice after Makhachev’s original opponent, Arman Tsarukyan, withdrew on weigh-in day due to injury. It gave Moicano the chance of a lifetime, and the Brazilian looked to establish his striking immediately when the bout got underway inside Intuit Dome.
But, despite the Brazilian managing to land a few decent strikes, the fight rapidly went away from him when Makhachev took him to the mat. After a spell with the Russian on top of him, Moicano worked some space and attempted to get to his feet. But as he did, he left his neck unprotected, and Makhachev took advantage. He locked in a tight D’Arce choke and broke Moicano’s resistance after just four minutes, five seconds of their title fight.
While Makhachev won with a crushing submission, the night’s other champion, bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili, showcased his number-one weapon, his cardio, in his unanimous decision win over the previously undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov.
A confident Nurmagomedov started strongly and appeared to claim the first two rounds – two out of the three judges scored it as such – but as the fight headed into the third round, the pace started to get to the challenger, and Dvalishvili knew it.
The champion pushed an insane pace through the final three rounds of the fight to overwhelm Nurmagomedov, who hung in there and kept throwing strikes in a bid to end the fight, but he simply had no answer to Dvalishvili’s relentless pace as the champion won Rounds 3, 4 and 5 to claim a unanimous decision victory with scores of 48-47, 48-47, 49-46.
UFC 311: Official results
MAIN CARD
- Islam Makhachev def. Renato Moicano via submission (D’Arce choke) – Round 1, 4:05 – for lightweight title
- Merab Dvalishvili def. Umar Nurmagomedov (48-47, 48-47, 49-46) – for bantamweight title
- Jiri Prochazka def. Jamahal Hill via TKO (punches) – Round 3, 3:01
- Jailton Almeida def. Serghei Spivac via TKO (ground strikes) – Round 1, 4:53
- Reinier De Ridder def. Kevin Holland via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 3:31
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Raoni Barcelos def. Payton Talbott via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
- Azamat Bekoev def. Zachary Reese via knockout (ground strikes) – Round 1, 3:04
- Bogdan Guskov def. Billy Elekana submission (guillotine choke) – Round 2, 3:33
- Grant Dawson def. Diego Ferreira via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
EARLY PRELIMS
- Ailin Perez def. Karol Rosa via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
- Muin Gafurov def. Rinya Nakamura via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Benardo Sopaj def. Ricky Turcios via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Tagir Ulanbekov def. Clayton Carpenter via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
