UFC 311: Previewing the Biggest Fights From LA

The first UFC pay-per-view of 2025 is just around the corner.

UFC 311 goes down on Jan. 18 in Inglewood, California. It will be topped by two blockbuster title fights.

In the main event, lightweight champion and pound-for-pound king Islam Makhachev will attempt a fourth title defense against streaking contender Arman Tsarukyan. It will the pair's second meeting after Makhachev scraped by Tsarukyan in a competitive 2019 fight.

In the co-main event, bantamweight champ Merab Dvalishvili will attempt his first title defense opposite Makhachev's training partner, Umar Nurmagomedov.

There's plenty to look forward to before the title fights, too.

Before the belts are up for grabs, former light heavyweight champions Jiří Procházka and Jamahal Hill will collide in hopes of re-entering the title conversation. Fan favorite lightweight contender Renato Moicano will also be back in action on the card, taking on one of his toughest opponents to date in Beneil Dariush. The main card will be kicked off by a fun style clash at middleweight, with flashy striker Kevin Holland taking on a suffocating grappler in former two-division ONE Championship titleholder Reinier de Ridder.

Keep scrolling for previews of the biggest fights of the night.

This is going to be good.

Islam Makhachev, the UFC's current pound-for-pound king, is a staggering 26-1 overall. That includes 15 wins in the Octagon, and three defenses of the lightweight belt against top-flight foes in Dustin Poirier and Alexander Volkanovski (twice).

His UFC 311 fight could be among his toughest to date.

Arman Tsarukyan (22-3) first met Makhachev in his UFC debut. Despite taking the fight on short notice, he gave the future champ a very competitive fight, and he'll look for an even more impressive performance in Inglewood.

There's reason to believe he can pull it off.

Tsarukyan has won nine fights since coming up short to Makhachev in his debut, losing only to top contender Mateusz Gamrot in that time. He's currently riding four straight wins, including a hard-fought decision defeat of former champ Charles Oliveira at UFC 300 last year and a stunning knockout of long-time contender Beneil Dariush in late 2023.

With new skills and a full camp behind him, he's in as good of a position as anybody to shock the UFC's best fighter.

UFC bantamweight champ Merab Dvalishvili (18-4) is on one of the best streaks in MMA right now. After losing his first two UFC bouts, he's now won 11 straight. That run that includes wins over a slew of former title challengers and champions in John Dodson, Marlon Moraes, José Aldo, Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo and Sean O'Malley, whom he defeated in September to win the bantamweight title.

Despite all he's accomplished in the Octagon, the champ will still enter the Octagon as a significant underdog at UFC 311.

That speaks to the talent of his challenger, Umar Nurmagomedov. A cousin of the former UFC lightweight champ Khabib, Nurmagomedov is a perfect 18-0 as a pro. While his resume is much shorter on big names than Dvalishvili's, he asserted himself as the division's top contender with a decision win over the always dangerous Cory Sandhagen in his last fight.

He can strike, he can definitely grapple, and he proved against Sandhagen that he can fight for five rounds. The oddsmakers are definitely sleeping on Dvalishvili, but it's easy to understand their confidence in the challenger.

One of the most alluring features of the UFC 311 main card is a light heavyweight showdown between former champions Jiří Procházka and Jamahal Hill.

Hill (12-2) and Procházka (30-5-1) both held the title before the division entered the Alex Pereira era, and have both failed to reclaim the belt from the fearsome Brazilian champion. In fact, they are both riding knockout losses to him heading into UFC 311.

Having said that, both men have proven they're a step ahead of most other fighters in the division. That's particularly true for Procházka, who has only lost to Pereira since joining the UFC and finished his four other opponents.

Given how recently they were both beaten by Pereira, it's unlikely either man will get a title shot with a victory, especially with Magomed Ankalaev awaiting that opportunity. Having said that, the winner of their fight will remain near the top of the weight class, and he could conceivably earn another title shot with an additional win or two.

So, who comes out on top? That's hard to say, but Procházka has won 26 fights by knockout and Hill has won seven, so there's a good chance somebody will be taking a nap in the Octagon.

After a hot-and-cold run as a featherweight, Brazil's Renato Moicano (20-5) has evolved into a serious lightweight contender. While he suffered a knockout loss to Raphael Fiziev in his debut in the division, and lost a decision to former champ Rafael dos Anjos soon thereafter, he has since beaten Brad Riddell, Drew Dober, Jalin Turner, and most recently Benoît Saint Denis. That streak has led him to a UFC 311 fight with long-time contender Beneil Dariush (22-6-1).

While Dariush never earned a crack at the lightweight belt, he has been floating near the top of the division for years, and he famously rattled off eight straight wins over solid opposition between 2018 and 2022. He's proven he can beat all but the very best lightweights, so it will be interesting to see if he can stop Moicano's momentum.

It's a huge fight for the division and should be a lot of fun, as both men are excellent grapplers with underrated striking. Dariush has also been contemplating retirement recently, so it could end up being the last chance we get to see him fight.

Kevin Holland (26-12) has been maddeningly inconsistent in the UFC with a 13-9 Octagon record. He has beaten some high-level opponents, but he also underperformed in fights he probably could have won.

Having said that, he is unfailingly entertaining, which is why he keeps ending up on pay-per-view main cards and in Fight Night main events.

His UFC 311 fight is going to be a tough one.

His opponent, "The Dutch Knight" Reinier de Ridder (18-2), previously held ONE Championship's middleweight and light heavyweight titles. While he suffered two tough title losses to Russian destroyer Anatoly Malykhin—the only setbacks of his career—he also asserted himself as a world-class fighter with wins over the likes of Aung La N Sang (twice) and Vitaly Bigdash, which is why he was signed by the UFC last year.

His debut win, a submission defeat of Gerald Meerschaert, wasn't exactly pretty, but it reaffirmed what already know about him: He's a skillful and persistent grappler who can finish just about anybody on the mat.

Grappling happens to be Holland's biggest weakness. Time will tell if he finds a way to knock De Ridder out, or if he finds himself fighting for breath on the canvas.

The UFC 311 undercard is more stacked than the vast majority of its Fight Night cards. That says a lot about how good the UFC 311 undercard is, but also how poor the quality of the promotion's smaller cards has gotten.

Arguably the most interesting feature of the undercard is the latest Octagon appearance from red-hot bantamweight contender Payton Talbott (9-0). Talbott has won his first three fights in the Octagon—all by stoppage—and will face the toughest test of his career in Inglewood when he battles Brazilian veteran Raoni Barcelos (18-5).

The undercard will also feature a clash of ranked heavyweight contenders, with Brazil's Jailton Almeida (21-3) taking on a fellow grappler in Moldovan "Polar Bear" Sergei Spivac (17-4), both of whom will be in reach of a title shot in victory.

Light heavyweight fan favorite Johnny Walker (21-9) will also be back in action on the undercard. He'll look to rebound from back-to-back knockout losses to Magomed Ankalaev and Volkan Oezdemir against rising contender Bogdan Guskov (16-3) who is—unfortunately for Walker's chin—a prolific knockout artist.

Other notable features of the undercard include a clash of fringe lightweight contenders in Grant Dawson and Diego Ferreira, and the return of undefeated Japanese bantamweight prospect Rinya Nakamura (9-0), who earned a contract with the promotion on Road to UFC and has already won three bouts in the Octagon. He'll take on experienced ONE Championship and LFA veteran Muin Gafurov (19-6), who once had a competitive fight with John Lineker and recently picked up his first UFC win against Kyung Ho Kang.