Los Angeles Hosts Action-Packed UFC 311, Champions Successfully Defend Belts

Inglewood’s Intuit Dome played host Saturday night as UFC 311 traveled to town despite scares of cancellation from the greater Los Angeles wildfires.

By Austin Gage

Another night, another action-packed event at the Intuit Dome, the recently-opened state-of-the-art arena that the Los Angeles Clippers call home just across the street from the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers’ Sofi Stadium.

Since opening officially on August 15th, 2024, the venue has welcomed events such as big-time concerts, Clippers’ home games, WWE’s Monday Night Raw and many more. For the first time, UFC traveled Saturday evening to Inglewood and put on a show with UFC 311, an event rich with knockouts, submissions, drama and theatrics.

The wildfires in the Southern California region threatened the UFC to move the event back to Las Vegas but those concerns were eliminated shortly after being called upon.

Regarding the fighters and fights themselves, some of the anticipation was marred just one day before the event was due to kick off. The headliner event, one that pitted the UFC’s number one pound-for-pound fighter Islam Makhachev against the number one contender in the lightweight division Arman Tsarukyan, suffered a blow the day of the weigh-ins.

Tsarukyan, who was set for a rematch in a title fight against the 26-1 Makhachev, withdrew from the fight due to an injury. Thankfully, as has been the case in many past situations for the UFC, they were able to find a replacement fighter on a quick turnaround in Brazilian fighter Renato Moicano, who would be fighting the best fighter in the sport in his first title fight of his career on one day’s notice.

As expected, Makhachev took care of business as he picked up a 27th victory, easily disposing of the heavy underdog Moicano via a D’Arce Choke with just under one minute remaining in the first round. It was another dominant showing from the Russian, who has run through the gauntlet untouched in the lightweight division and may attempt to become a two or three-division champ next by taking the belts at welterweight and middleweight.

“I like this belt. If someone wants this belt, come to the cage,” Makhachev said.

In the other title fight of the night, Georgian fighter Merab Dvalishvili produced a minor surprise by handing the Russian Umar Nurmagomedov his first loss in his professional MMA career.

Despite entering the fight as the champion and holding the belt in the bantamweight division after a clean performance against past champion Sean O’Malley, Dvalishvili was seen as the underdog against Nurmagomedov, who shares the same last name with his cornerman and UFC great Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Using his high energy level paired with an unlimited gas tank and stellar takedown defense, the champion defended his belt for the first time. After a close first two rounds, Dvalishvili stood out in the final three,winning via unanimous decision from the three judges, 48-47, 49-46 and 48-47. The dramatic fighter played to the crowd many times and highlighted his night in the fifth round with a point to his opponent while raising his hands to bask in the successful performance.

“I wish the fight was more longer and I [would] enjoy more. I had fun, I don’t remember many things out there,” said Dvalishvili.

The win gave him his fifth unanimous decision victory in a row and improved his MMA record to 19-4.

Another key fight took place between two former light heavyweight champions, Jiří Procházka and Jamahal Hill: two former victims of the current division champion Alex Pereira.

It was an entertaining fight as both fighters traded blows throughout the three-round contest. In the third, it was Procházka who slipped away from a Hill right hand and capitalized on the over-extended attempt with a two-punch combo to drop the former and produce a devastating knockout victory.

Overall, the night was a major success for the UFC and the Intuit Dome. Key fights played out in entertaining fashion and the Inglewood crowd played a huge role in the delivery of the event.

“This place is beautiful, I mean look how badass this arena looks. Look how good it looks on TV. So many people came up to me and said ‘Thank you for not pulling this fight out of LA, LA needs this and we needed this.’ And obviously when you look at the gate, everything about tonight was awesome, and yes we will be back to LA,” UFC CEO and president Dana White said.