UFC 311: Khabib’s brother lost to Dvalishvili! But Makhachev easily defended his title.
The fight went to a judge's decision. Merab won by unanimous decision.
The co-main event featured another title fight, where bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili defended his title against the undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov.
The tournament kicked off with a fight involving another representative of Khabib Nurmagomedov's team. Top flyweight Tagir Ulanbekov faced American Clayton Carpenter. The Russian won by unanimous decision.
Another Russian fighter, Azamat Bekojev, also fought on short notice at UFC 311. His opponent was American Zachary Reese. The Russian knocked out his opponent in the first round.
Also attracting attention was the bout between two former UFC light heavyweight champions, Jamahal Hill and Jiří Procházka. It went to the third round, with the Czech fighter winning by knockout.
Even Khabib couldn’t help. Umar failed to handle Dvalishvili's pressure in the championship fight.
Nurmagomedov gave Merab a tough fight, but for the first time in his career, he lost. In Los Angeles (USA), the grand UFC 311 event concluded. One of the main events of the evening featured a title fight in the bantamweight division between the reigning champion, Georgian Merab Dvalishvili, and Russian fighter Umar Nurmagomedov.
"I personally think UFC forced Merab to fight. This is purely my opinion. They pressured him to fight Umar because UFC needed a co-main event for the title at UFC 311. After his fight with Sandhagen, Umar was fully focused on the title," said Khabib Nurmagomedov in an interview on the Gorilla Fighting YouTube channel.
However, this didn’t have any effect: Umar ignored it all.
Of course, the fight promised to be highly intriguing. Dvalishvili had steamrolled many top fighters in the division—Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo, Sean O'Malley—and finally won the championship title. But now he was facing perhaps the toughest challenge of his career. Umar was not only strong in wrestling, making it extremely difficult to take him down or keep him on the ground, but he also excelled in striking, so defeating him was a tough task, especially with Khabib in his corner.
The fighters started the fight with a lot of feints, with almost one and a half minutes of sizing each other up. Umar started working with his hands, landing a few jabs and combos. Dvalishvili kept threatening with takedown attempts, but they were unsuccessful. Umar’s first takedown attempt was more successful, but he couldn’t control Merab on the ground. Dvalishvili began adding low kicks, while Umar responded with kicks to the body. The last moments of the round went to the Russian, who caught the retreating champion with a solid right hand.
The second round started with more feints, after which Umar took control of several exchanges in the striking. He landed several combinations on Merab and kicks to the body. Merab tried to go for a takedown, but Umar countered well and quickly took his back. Merab managed to get up, but the champion suffered a cut under his eye, which became a problem. In the latter half of the round, the Georgian fighter attempted to increase the pressure, but Umar successfully defended takedown attempts and continued to work well on the feet.
At the beginning of the third round, Merab again failed with a takedown attempt, and Umar handled the champion's wrestling. Dvalishvili tried to take the lead, landing low kicks and engaging in exchanges on the feet, attempting to go for takedowns. But Nurmagomedov answered well in the exchanges. The round was close: while Umar had the advantage in the first two, the third round could have gone either way. In the final moments, Umar threw Merab down, securing the end of the round.
Merab came forward in the fourth round. He started with three takedown attempts, two of which were successful, but Umar got back up each time. The Georgian fighter kept pressing, while Umar played the counter-fighter, landing combinations and single kicks. Both fighters started to slow down, and it was another close round, though Dvalishvili continued pushing forward and, in the final moments, managed a takedown and controlled Nurmagomedov against the cage.
Before the final round, the fight seemed very close, and it was unclear how the judges would score the rounds. Thus, the winner's fate was largely decided in the final moments. Umar shook off his fatigue and stopped retreating. Merab kept attempting takedowns, but Umar handled them well. The fighters started to meet more in the center of the cage, with Umar continuing to dominate in the striking exchanges, landing clean two-punch combos. However, Merab responded well and, in the final moments, managed two successful takedowns.
The fight went the full five rounds. As expected, it was an extremely close and competitive battle. The judges scored it 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 in favor of Merab Dvalishvili, who turned the fight around and came on strong in the second half. The Georgian fighter retained his championship belt, and Umar Nurmagomedov suffered the first defeat of his career.
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