Dana White claims that a late-night conversation with one of his champions helped turn UFC 311 into a stacked card.
On Wednesday evening, the UFC boss took to social media to reveal the main and co-main event for his first pay-per-view show of 2025.
Lightweight champion Islam Makhachev will headline the card in a title fight rematch with top contender Arman Tsarukyan, who he outpointed when they first met in 2019.
In the UFC 311 co-main event, Merab Dvalishvili will make the first defense of his bantamweight belt against undefeated 18-0 prospect Umar Nurmagomedov.
Dana White reveals how he made UFC 311 co-headliner
Dvalishvili had been pretty against fighting Nurmagomedov. Khabib Nurmagomedov’s cousin has just one ranked win over Cory Sandhagen at 135lbs.
Many people, including the champion, thought he needed to do more before being booked in a title fight – but White pulled the trigger on the matchup after a conversation with Dvalishvili earlier this week.
The MMA mogul revealed all of this during his UFC 311 fight announcement post.
White said: “Just finalized last night, the co-main event will now be a bantamweight title fight between the champion, Merab Dvalishvili, and undefeated number one contender, Umar Nurmagomedov.
“Merab came into the office late last night and told us he’s tired of listening to Umar disrespect him and that he wants to make this fight as soon as possible.
“We called Umar, he was sleeping in Dagestan, and he said, ‘Hell yes! Anywhere, any time.’”
Khabib Nurmagomedov has big job at UFC 311
Since retiring from fighting in 2020, Khabib Nurmagomedov has become one of the best trainers in MMA, with champions in all three major promotions.
‘The Eagle’ will be in California for UFC 311 to play an important role during the two big fights of the night.
After White’s announcement, Nurmagomedov took to social media to speculate about making history when he corners back-to-back title bouts in the UFC for Makhachev and Umar next month.
He wrote on Instagram: “Two title fights at once!
“I think it’s never happened before or hasn’t happened until now…
“What a night is waiting for me, I hope I’ll survive.”