Two title bouts will top the
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return to the City of
Angels.

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Dana White announced on Wednesday night that UFC 311
will be headlined by a lightweight championship clash between
Islam
Makhachev and Arman
Tsarukyan. In the co-main event, Merab
Dvalishvili will defend his bantamweight crown against Umar
Nurmagomedov. UFC 311 takes place on Jan. 18 at the Intuit Dome
in Los Angeles and airs on pay-per-view via ESPN+.

Makchev and Tsarukyan initially squared off at UFC Fight Night 149,
with Makhachev winning via unanimous decision in the April 2019
bout. That was just part of an ongoing 14-fight winning streak for
Makhachev, who captured the lightweight strap with a second-round
submission of Charles
Oliveira at UFC 280 and has since defended the belt with
triumphs over Alexander
Volkanovski (twice) and Dustin
Poirier.

Tsarukyan, meanwhile, has been victorious in nine of 10 Octagon
appearances since falling to Makhachev in his promotional debut.
The 28-year-old American Top Team product secured a title shot by
taking a split verdict over Oliveira at UFC
300 this past April.

Dvalishvili claimed bantamweight gold this past September, when he
defeated Sean O’Malley via unanimous decision in the UFC
306 main event. “The Machine” has won 11 consecutive bouts in
UFC competition, with 10 of those triumphs coming at 135 pounds.
While Dvalishvili was somewhat dismissive of Nurmagomedov in the
aftermath of his win over O’Malley, it appears that the Georgian
has changed his tune.

“Merab came into the office late [Tuesday] night, told us that he
is tired of listening to Umar disrespect him and wanted to make
this fight happen as soon as possible,” White said. “We called
Umar. He was sleeping in Dagestan. He said, ‘Hell yes. Anywhere,
anytime.’”

Nurmagomedov owns an 18-0 career mark that includes six victories
within the Las Vegas-based promotion. The 28-year-old Eagles MMA
representative earned the most significant victory of his
professional tenure at UFC on ABC 7, where he outpointed Cory
Sandhagen in a main event affair on Aug. 3.

IMAK ADMIN

By IMAK ADMIN

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