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Andreas Hale, ESPN
Islam Makhachev will look to defend his belt and teammate Umar Nurmagomedov will problem for a world title within the first UFC pay-per-view card of 2025.
Makhachev, the UFC’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter, will put his light-weight title on the road towards the No. 1-ranked light-weight Arman Tsarukyan in the principle occasion of UFC 311 on Jan. 18 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
Nurmagomedov will look to convey one other world title to Eagles MMA when he faces bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili within the co-main occasion.
Tsarukyan gave Makhachev one of many hardest fights in his profession after they met in 2019, with Makhachev profitable by unanimous determination. Since that loss, which got here in his UFC debut, Tsarukyan (22-3) has climbed the light-weight ladder by profitable 9 of his subsequent 10 fights. A cut up determination win over former champion Charles Oliveira at UFC 300 in April arrange the Armenian fighter for a second crack at Makhachev.
Makhachev (26-1) hasn’t misplaced a combat in 9 years and has wins over Oliveira, former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and submitted Dustin Poirier in June. The pupil of Khabib Nurmagomedov, Makhachev will look so as to add to his UFC light-weight file 13 consecutive victories and turn out to be the all-time chief in light-weight title combat wins with 5.
Dvalishvili (18-4) received the bantamweight title with a dominant determination win over Sean O’Malley at Noche UFC in September. Nicknamed “The Machine,” Dvalishvili is ranked by the UFC because the No. 7 pound-for-pound fighter and has received 10 straight fights, the longest profitable streak in UFC bantamweight historical past. Dvalishvili has been dominant in his previous 4 fights, with wins over former champions Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo and José Aldo earlier than beating O’Malley for the title.
Nurmagomedov, the youthful cousin of Khabib, is undefeated in 18 skilled MMA fights. He is ranked No. 2 by the UFC within the 135-pound division and punched his ticket to a title alternative when he defeated Cory Sandhagen by unanimous determination in August. He was initially scheduled to face Song Yadong on Dec. 14, however that combat was pulled when his opponent sustained an damage.
UFC 311 can even characteristic a light-weight heavyweight bout between former champions Jamahal Hill and Jiri Prochazka, and Kevin Holland will face former ONE Championship two-division titleholder Reinier de Ridder.
