Last night (Sat., Jan. 18, 2025), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) ventured forth to Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California for UFC 311. It’s difficult for a fight week lead up to be more eventful than this one. The discussions of whether the event would actually take place in southern California due to the fires were continually ongoing, and then the main event fell apart at the last minute! Fortunately, Renato Moicano stepped up to save the main event (at the expense of his Beneil Dariush booking), and it all worked out in the end to make for a memorable night of combat.
Let’s take a look back over at UFC 311’s best performances and techniques:
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Makhachev Makes History
Islam Makhachev didn’t take long to dispatch Renato Moicano. The Brazilian came out aggressive, but Makhachev landed the first takedown he tried. As soon as Moicano took a chance and moved to scramble, Makhachev jumped on his neck with another brilliant short d’arce choke.
Moicano — an ultra tough human being and legitimate jiu-jitsu black belt — tapped frantically a few seconds later. That squeeze is already something legendary!
Just like that, Makhachev sets the UFC record for Lightweight title defenses. He takes a step beyond the likes of Khabib, BJ Penn, Frankie Edgar, and Benson Henderson. Now in a class all his own, it’s a strange situation in that he hasn’t actually defended against a particularly deserving Lightweight contender yet!
Two of Makhachev’s title defenses came versus a Featherweight (a great one, obviously). I’ll give him full points for the first win, but the second one that Volkanovski took on a few day’s notice while not training for a fight? Meaningless. Dustin Poirier is an icon, but his best days are years behind him. Finally, Moicano is a good Lightweight … but he’s not Top Five. He wasn’t particularly close to a title shot before tonight.
Makhachev’s current 15-fight win streak is tremendous. He’s a deserving pound-for-pound king. He might well be the best Lightweight of all time, and he’s done nothing wrong in accepting all comers. It’s simply unfortunate that circumstance has worked out that he’s defended his title four times in four weird situations.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
A Merab Middle Finger
Umar Nurmagomedov is an outstanding fighter. His skill set is absolutely elite, and he’s sure to be a champion at some point in his career. Still, there is absolutely no reason he should’ve entered this match up as a 3-1 favorite against the defending champion who’s on the best win streak in the division’s history.
Nurmagomedov cleanly won a single round, the first. By the second, Dvalishvili was already landing more punches and getting closer to his takedowns (though Nurmagomedov still did the better work). Scorecards aside, the typical Dvalishvili snowball was rolling midway through the second, and there’s just no way to come back from that.
Rounds three and four were standard Merab. He would shoot a takedown, fire a right hand, then shoot another takedown. At least one of those three things would work to some extent! The more Dvalishvili got a hold on his foe, the more often he was breaking the clinch with rough punches. He also started ripping the body to good effect, pulling further and further ahead.
Credit to Nurmagomedov, he fought hard in the fifth and found some good lands. He showed real heart considering he still looked ready to vomit 10 minutes later in the post-fight interview. Even so, Dvalishvili put a stamp on the performance by rattling “Young Eagle” with an overhand then throwing him to the floor twice in the final 30 seconds.
This win (and all the showboating) felt like a middle finger to all the Merab doubters. UFC pushed him to take this match up quickly after his title win and despite his injuries, yet he still ended up tossing around the hottest undefeated fighter in the sport. “The Machine” is an absolutely incredible athlete and a freak talent — put some respect on his name!
Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC
Jiri Prochazka LOCKS IN!
Ahead of his high-profile Light Heavyweight clash versus Jamahal Hill, Prochazka mentioned an intention of keeping his hands up. Immediately, I was doubtful. Prochazka’s entire game relies on his unique movement and crafty traps, and a big part of that success comes from baiting his opponents to swing at him. Low hands are part of that, and taking away a pillar of his strategy sounded iffy.
Fortunately, it was a lie. Prochazka’s hands were low as ever. He did, however, live up to his promise of improved defense. Prochazka has always moved his head to create opportunities for offense, but he was far more proactive in sliding away and rolling after his punches. It worked brilliantly, as the biggest shots Prochazka landed tended to occur immediately after making Hill miss.
Prochazka’s pocket boxing has never looked sharper. Several times, he stung Hill badly by initiating with a quick cross, rolling the counter, and then following up. In addition, he did really great work in countering Hill’s straight punches. By sliding away from punches consistently, Prochazka’s sudden plant and return worked quite often.
Hill fought well himself. He won the second by focusing on body work rather than head-hunting, and he also did good work in doubling up the jab and grabbing collar-ties to deliver uppercuts. It was smart strategy, and the fight was tied up heading into the third.
Unfortunately for Hill, Prochazka is one of the greats at locking in when it counts. The third frame began and Prochazka was on fire immediately, hurting Hill with a quick flurry. As Hill tried to work his way back into the round, Prochazka floored him with a sharp counter and stayed in his face relentlessly. He knocked him down again, swarmed with punches, and forced the finish.
Prochazka has a natural gift for violence and an affinity for chaos. Technical adjustments aside, he’s still “The Czech Samurai.” Put his back to the wall, and he’s going to slice through his opposition or die trying every single time.
If you don’t love Jiri, find a different f—king sport.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Heavyweight Grappling Madness!
I loved Serghei Spivac vs. Jailton Almeida. I’m also glad it lasted just a round — despite being pure fun and chaos the whole while — because nobody had the chance to get tired and ruin it!
Almeida showed some unusual fire on the feet to open the fight, but Spivac started strong early with a lovely clinch throw and some heavy ground strikes. The Brazilian was able to turn the tide with a half guard sweep, one quite literally named the “old school” sweep. Though he advanced into mount quickly, Spivac returned the favor with a reversal of his own and some more elbows.
Almeida is craftier than most Heavyweights from his back. Just a couple minutes after that textbook old school sweep, he used a butterfly hook to fling Spivac off him and scramble to his feet. Immediately, he started firing bombs and actually hurt the Moldovan! Almeida went to the double leg, took mount, and finished the fight via ground strikes moments later.
Seeing as Almeida has only ever shown the front kick-and-shoot strategy on the feet previously, this was quite a development from the Heavyweight contender. Add knockout power into his potent grappling and he could be a real title threat!
Speaking of, I’d still love to see him fight Ciryl Gane next …
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RDR Shocks Holland
By and large, I don’t think the UFC community was overly impressed by Reinier de Ridder’s debut victory against Gerald Meerschaert. A finish win is always nice, certainly, but “The Dutch Knight” really struggled at times against a veteran not seriously considered as a Middleweight contender.
His sophomore performance, conversely, may sway a few to the “RDR” hype train, as de Ridder pretty much ran over an even more well-regarded foe in Holland. De Ridder landed a couple decent shots early before scoring a fairly easy takedown. Holland tried to throw up a triangle, but that offense only allowed “RDR” to pass his guard. Before long, he was on the back, and the size difference was apparent. The ease with which de Ridder stretched out his opponent and locked in the choke really looked like a former Light Heavyweight against a man who recently fought at Welterweight.
The strangle came quickly, and de Ridder is suddenly worthy of a ranked foe.
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Additional Thoughts
- Azamat Bekoev defeats Zachary Reese via first-round knockout (highlights): Bekoev was a short-notice replacement, but LFA champions tend to do well inside the Octagon. That trend continued here, as Bekoev was able to score a smooth takedown early in the first. Quickly, he was able to posture from guard and drop absolute hammers, smashing Reese into unconsciousness. The Russian prospect has now won seven-straight and should be considered a solid prospect at 185-pounds.
- Bogdan Guskov defeats Billy Elekana via second-round guillotine choke (highlights): The first finish of the evening took a little while to materialize, but it was a fun scrap. Elekana took this match up on very short-notice, and it really showed. The PFL veteran was able to implement his wrestling early, advancing to back mount and nearly securing a choke. When Guskov escaped towards the end of the first, however, it was fairly clear that Elekana was a bit spent. Guskov landed some hammering shots from top position and kept the momentum in his corner into the second, pummeling Elekana on the feet. Elekana crumbled beneath his offense, opening up an easy guillotine choke.
For complete UFC 311 results and play-by-play, click here.
