On Saturday, Jan. 18, one of the biggest UFC cards in the last year took place at the newly-built Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California. For those of you unfamiliar with what the UFC is, it is the premier fighting organization for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and hosts some of the most talented fighters in the world. MMA is a unique sport, as it combines striking, grappling and wrestling to create entertaining and interesting fights. In the UFC, there are 12 weight class divisions (eight for men, four for women) and almost every month the organization hosts an event featuring a champion from one of these weight classes.
This month’s event, UFC 311, was very exciting as it featured one of the greatest fighters of all time, lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. Makhachev is from Dagestan, Russia and has an impressive record of 27-1. His coach is Khabib Nurmogumedov, who took the UFC by storm with a 29-0 record up until he retired four years ago. The main strength of Makhachev’s game is his grappling and wrestling, as he is extremely dangerous with his ground game. He also has talented striking abilities, going punch for punch in his last title defense against another UFC legend Dustin Poirer. Makhachev ended up winning that fight in the fifth round via D’arce submission and was prepared to continue his momentum into this fight for his fourth title defense against number one contender Arman Tsarukyan, 22-3. This was supposed to be the second time the two had fought with the first bout being Arman’s UFC debut where Makhachev won by unanimous decision. Unfortunately just one day before the fight, Tsarukyan had to pull out of the fight due to a sudden back injury. This left UFC president Dana White scrambling to find another fighter to fight Islam Makhachev on short notice. Luckily, Renato Moicano, the number nine ranked fighter in the division was willing to take the fight as he was already supposed to be fighting that day.
The Co-Main event for UFC 311 featured Bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili and the number two contender Umar Nurmogumedov. He is the cousin of UFC legend Khabib Nurmogumedov and had him in his corner as his coach. Khabib Nurmogumedov had a stressful night as he coached three fights, with Tagir Ulanbekov also fighting to start the night. It was a special night for all three fighters, as all three of them train in the same gym and fought their hardest to make their hometown of Dagestan proud. Umar had an impressive record of 18-0 going into his first championship fight but ultimately came up short, losing a close fight against the defending champion Merab Dvalishvili. Coming off an impressive championship fight against former champion Sean O’malley where he captured the belt via unanimous decision, Dvalishvili was confident going into the fight, and it showed. He has arguably the best stamina in all of the UFC, and he was able to slow the fight down and beat Umar Nurmogumedov and represent his hometown of Tbilisi, Georgia.
With this stacked card there were many other interesting fights like Jiri Prozachia against Jamahal Hill, and Kevin Holland against Renier de Ridder; however, all the discussion was about the two championship bouts. Islam Makhachev had an extremely quick fight, submitting Renato Moicano in the first round. Makhachev has a lot of experience and is the most well-rounded fighter in the world right now, which makes him difficult to beat, let alone on short notice. It was a respectable effort from Renato Moicano, but everybody knew he was no match for Makhachev. Whenever Makhachev fights, he is always able to quickly make fighters pay and capitalize on their mistakes. In the bantamweight championship, I was confident that Umar Nurmogumedov would get the win as he is a better striker than Merab Dvalishvili, but Dvalishvili held his own on that front and successfully slowed the fight down to win. This card as a whole was very entertaining as some of the top fighters in the world clashed on Jan. 18.
