January 18, 2025 goes to be a busy evening for Khabib Nurmagomedov.
On Wednesday, Dana White introduced that the promotion’s first pay-per-view of the brand new yr shall be headlined by a light-weight title conflict between reigning and defending champion Islam Makhachev and the division’s top-ranked contender Arman Tsarukyan.
On high of that, Merab Dvalishvili will make his first protection of the bantamweight crown when he meets undefeated sensation Umar Nurmagomedov within the co-main occasion.
These two title fights be part of the already-announced mild heavyweight banger between former titleholders Jamahal Hill and Jiri Prochazka.
Contemplating that each Makhachev and Umar Nurmagomedov are famously part of Khabib’s staff in Dagestan, the UFC Corridor of Famer is already stressing about having to nook his fighters in back-to-back championship bouts subsequent month.
“I feel it’s by no means occurred earlier than, or hasn’t occurred till now,” Nurmagomedov wrote in a translated submit on his Instagram story. “What an evening is ready for me, I hope I’ll survive.”
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For Islam Makhachev, it will likely be his third time placing his 155-pound crown on the road after securing two straight wins over Alexander Volkanovski earlier than submitting Dustin Poirier within the fifth spherical of their UFC 302 foremost occasion in June.
Makhachev’s battle with Tsarukyan would be the second-ever assembly between the 2. The primary got here again in 2019 when Makahchev defeated ‘Ahalkalakets’ through unanimous determination at UFC on ESPN 7. Since then, Tsarukyan has gone 9-1 contained in the Octagon, his solely different loss coming in opposition to Mateusz Gamrot. Tsarukyan earned his spot on the high of the light-weight ladder through a quartet of wins, together with Ws in opposition to Beneil Dariush and ex-champion Charles Oliveira.
In the meantime, Umar Nurmagomedov — the cousin of Khabib — will compete in his first title battle at UFC 311. Regardless of being an ideal 18-0 in his combined martial arts profession with six of these victories coming contained in the Octagon, Nurmagomedov is sorely missing any noteworthy wins outdoors of a dominant efficiency in opposition to Cory Sandhagen in August that skyrocketed him towards the highest of the rankings.
Earlier than that, his UFC wins got here in opposition to Sergey Morozov, Brian Kelleher, Nate Maness, Raoni Barcelos, and Bekzat Almakhan. Nonetheless, Nurmagomedov opened as a 2-to-1 favourite to defeat Dvalishvili and convey the bantamweight belt again house to Russia.
