UFC 311: Makhachev vs Moicano - Jan 18 ??

[Dai]

Enjoyed every fight on the main card. Nothing to say about the main event, and I dont think it really improves Islam's resume, as it was such a short notice fight. Still wouldnt put his reign above Khabibs yet either, as this fight didnt improve his legacy at all in my opinion.

Co Main was a great and technical scrap. Went the way I expected, but actually with Umar being more competitive than I expected in the early rounds. Most people thought the gas tank was going to come into play, and that was the key factor in Round 4 and 5. Umar was clearly gassed come R5, so a a shame he couldnt find that extra bit of juice to make that round a bit more competitive.

Judging from the amount Hill moaned about the Peireira loss, he will no doubt complain about this one too, as he was starting to move from his turtle position just as the fight was being stopped. Great fight and Jiri looked great with his crisp boxing defence. Still dont fancy his chances again Peireira at all though. Hill looked very tubby too.

The other two main fights were good for what they were too.

 

[Egg Shen]

Only way anyone beats Merab is if they land some kind of one punch KO as he's coming in, the guy is unstoppable.

An air of anti-climax to the main event, but Islam is just that good. Has he overtaken Khabib at this point? I think so, his run doesn't have the impact Khabib's had, and Khabib leaving the game with his zero in tact will always let people put him on a pedestal but I think overall Makhachev's resume is stronger at this point...plus he just seems to be getting better. By the end of 2025 I don't think there'll be any debate.

Edited January 22, 2025 by Egg Shen

[Carbomb]

Pleasantly surprised that Merab won - the Kavkazis have built up such an aura around their wrestling, particularly because of Khabib and Makhachev, and both Usman and Umar being undefeated until now, it's good to see someone outside that bubble win it. Yes, Merab is also a Kavkazi, but culturally a bit different, and the other Georgians in the UFC haven't been quite so dominant. Also, Merab has four losses to his name, and Usman had none.

[wandshogun09]

First off, I thought the Intuit Dome looked incredible for this. Especially the cool shit they did for the main and co-main events. It was like a little bit of a more chilled out version of the Sphere.

I don’t think Makhachev retaining was a surprise and it shouldn’t have been. Moicano’s a good fighter to a certain level but Makhachev’s a different beast. All things considered, with Makhachev wanting to stay on the card and so little time to play with, they made the best of a bad situation. But I just couldn’t really see a path to victory for Moicano here. Didn’t see Moicano having much success in the striking or grappling. It’s one thing battering Benoit Saint Denis, and that was impressive, but I don’t think it would’ve mattered if he had a 6 month camp for this. I just don’t think he has the tools or power to beat Makhachev. It ended up being the squash match it sounded like but I think that was for the best. As much as everyone likes a crazy upset, that would’ve been such a shit outcome long term. Moicano wouldn’t have lasted as champ anyway and Makhachev can still have big fights as champ, plus potential Superfights with guys up and down in weight.

Although saying that, I don’t have a clue what’s next. Logically, you’d think they’d just reschedule the Tsarukyan fight. But Dana’s already shot that down and said Tsarukyan will need to earn his way back to the title shot. Funny how some fighters have to do that and others just keep getting shots whether they earn it or not. Maybe he’ll change his mind and they’ll do the Tsarukyan fight yet but if what he’s saying now sticks, what do they do next? Charles Oliveira is angling for a Makhachev rematch but I don’t know. I’d rather see Oliveira vs Holloway myself. What else is there for Makhachev though, if not Tsarukyan? Can see them doing Moicano vs Pimblett now. That’s a fight they’ve been on about for a while, Paddy was taking the piss out of Moicano’s performance already and they’ve gone back and forth a bit since.

I don't think I’ll ever doubt Merab again. Jesus fuck. I honestly thought he was spooked by something he’d seen in Umar’s game and that’s why he’d been so reluctant to make the fight and kept trying to put obstacles in the way of it. Then seeing how angry he was anytime they were in the same place, it was really starting to seem like he was rattled and didn’t want the fight. What a performance though. There genuinely might not be a more appropriate nickname in combat sports right now than ‘The Machine’ for Merab.

The pace he puts on opponents and the cardio is off the charts in a way I don’t think we’ve ever seen in MMA. Seriously I can’t think of an example of another fighter who’s consistently shown more insane conditioning at the kind of level Merab’s been operating on. It wasn’t even like Umar fought badly either. He was doing really well early on and I had him winning the first two rounds. But he couldn’t maintain it and once Merab gets going, good luck stopping that.

Just look at this shit, will you? ?

Seen a lot of talk that Umar had a broken hand but Merab’s leg was all kinds of fucked up as well. There’s pictures of it out there. He had a really bad cut on his shin, and I think I read it got infected. It was still healing and visible on fight week and he talked about having to trick the CSAC in the pre-fight medicals so they wouldn’t pull him from the fight. Absolute clowns somehow missed it. Umar definitely jacked his hand up as well, and it’s a testament to his own toughness that he fought 5 rounds and was throwing it regardless. People are talking like Merab wrecked him but he fought well and gave Merab a better fight than O’Malley, Yan, Cejudo or Aldo did. He’ll be back. He just ran into a fucking cyborg here. And don’t forget, it sounds like the UFC pressured Merab to take the fight sooner than he wanted to and he still went out and did this? Great fight.

And to think Merab didn’t have a great start to his career. He lost 2 of his first 3 pro fights, lost his first couple of UFC fights and was 7-4 after getting subbed by Ricky Simon in 2018. From that day on, whatever changed or whatever clicked for him, he decided to just stop losing, he’s won 12 in a row since and has arguably the strongest resume of wins in 135 history. At 34, I’m not sure how long he can keep this up. But on this form, I don’t know who beats him. I thought going in that Umar was the toughest matchup for him of the current crop and I still think he might’ve been. Who’s next? Merab’s on about doing a quick turnaround. Think he said something about April. Guess it just comes down to who’s available then. Probably be an O’Malley rematch but I can’t see it looking any different to the first one. Then again, the other option is Yan and I can’t see that going differently to the first fight either. We’re at that point where Merab’s gonna start beating all these guys for a second time.

Jiri Prochazka twatting Jamahal Hill was satisfying as fuck. It was a very entertaining fight in the end. I thought Jiri was noticeably sharper with his counters and better at avoiding being hit himself than he usually is. Probably the best he’s looked in the UFC for me in terms of his own performance. Hill had some success in the second round but then Jiri just closed the show beautifully in the third.

Saw a clip of Hill walking out of the cage and to the back after the fight and he looked absolutely crushed and like his whole world just crumbled. I actually kind of felt sorry for him even though I find him absolutely insufferable. I give it a few days before he’s making excuses and arguing with a thousand Twitter accounts about it though. He can’t help himself. Sounds harsh as well but watching him here, there were points in the fight when it really hit home just how much the Light Heavyweight division has declined over the years if Jamahal Hill managed to become champion. The amount of times he threw a goofy punch like a complete wally with his feet all over the shop and leaving himself out of position to either follow up or protect himself from counters. Surprised Jiri never chinned him quicker really.

Don’t know what’s next for Jiri. I wouldn’t be against him getting another crack at Pereira at some point, even with the 0-2 scoreline. The second fight was thrown together on such short notice I don’t think it’s really fair to hold that loss against him too much. But obviously they’ve just announced Pereira vs Ankalaev for 313 in March. Maybe Jiri vs Rountree in the meantime? Tell me you wouldn’t be up for that! Well happy with this result though. Felt like Hill needed another loss after all his bellyaching since the Pereira fight. And Jiri seems like such a good (albeit weird) egg and I didn’t wanna see him lose another one. Plus the whole story of that girl who has cancer being in attendance and stuff, it was nice to see Jiri get the win and give her the full positive experience of seeing her guy win. Loved it.

Jailton Almeida looked good. Just walked through Spivac quick. One of the very few Heavyweights who actually looks the part, physically and skill-wise. Spivac had his moments here and he looked in the best shape I can remember seeing him in. Almeida didn’t have it all his own way and still got the win and the first round finish. He’s still not without flaws but this was good stuff from him, I thought.

Still not sure quite how good he is but he’s better than the vast majority of that wasteland of a division. Seems to be over that little blip where he looked awful in victory over Lewis and then lost to Blaydes. Remains to be seen how he looks the next time he steps in with a Blaydes level opponent but, for now, he looks every bit of a future title contender. I liked him calling out Ciryl Gane after. I’m sure he’s called Gane out before and I’d like to see that fight. I don’t think it happens though. Not yet. This Jones vs Aspinall fight isn’t gonna happen so they’re gonna need either Almeida or Gane to fight Aspinall next.

De Ridder pissing through Kevin Holland was a result that always seemed possible given Holland’s problems with strong grapplers in the past but it wasn’t really how I expected it to play out. The California State Athletic Commission released he fight night weights for this card and De Ridder weighed nearly 22lbs more than Holland in the cage, and it looked that way with how easily he was handling him. Still, Holland’s like this, isn’t he? He’s got some skills and attributes where you’d think he could go quite far but he has these moments where he seems to completely fall to bits when it’s not going his way. De Ridder’s off to a great start in the UFC. Wonder who he gets matched with next. Gotta be a ranked opponent. I know he’s calling for Top 5 and I like the confidence but, looking at the rankings now, I see Michel Pereira, Jack Hermansson and Fluffy Hernandez are all in that 12-15 range. I’d be up for any of them. A fight with Paulo Costa could be interesting/funny as well.

Didn’t expect Raoni Barcelos to be the one to burst the Payton Talbott bubble. Barcelos is a tough guy and has skills but at 37 and after some rough losses, I felt like Talbott would win. Whether it would be a quick blowout or a tougher, experience building fight, I thought Talbott would ultimately pass the test. Wrong. I’m blaming it on Talbott cutting his hair.

Nah seriously, this was a bit of an eye opener and really exposed some big weaknesses in Talbott’s overall game. I’m seeing all sorts of ‘fraud check’ bollocks as usual but this was his first loss, he’s young enough that he can make improvements, he’s not on the scrapheap at 26. He’s got some work to do though clearly. His grappling is gonna have to get a lot better if he’s gonna have consistent success in a division as strong as Bantamweight is these days. I know he was way off the title mix yet anyway but you look at the two guys who fought for that belt in the same division on this card, Talbott’s grappling is lightyears behind those guys. Thing is as well, now Barcelos has really exposed it, you’ll probably see more of Talbott’s opponents try to exploit it.

Azamat Bekoev…

Fuck me. Nasty stuff. Didn’t help that the ref basically bounced Reese’s head off the canvas even more as well. Knew nothing of Bekoev when he was announced as the late substitute here but he definitely looks a bit of a handful. Reese isn’t much good so we’ll see how Bekoev does against better opposition, but a big first impression regardless.

Bogdan Guskov continues to rack up finishes. It was definitely welcome after 5 straight decisions to kick off the night as well. Elekana was a late replacement, the win doesn’t mean much, but still, Guskov got the job done. Elekana seemed to unravel to me after his early back-take didn’t go anywhere. Shame Guskov didn’t get to fight Johnny Walker as originally planned here. That could’ve been fun and a decent name win for Guskov. Maybe they’ll rebook it.

Grant Dawson was all over Carlos Diego Ferreira. Clear decision win, although not the most exciting to watch. I was kind of hoping Ferreira would have more to offer in the grappling but Dawson just overwhelmed him here. Gutted for Ferreira. And at 40 years old, I’m not sure how much longer he’s gonna stick around.

Ailin Perez vs Karol Rosa was as crap as expected from the bits I bothered with. Thank fuck for the fast forward button. Can’t be doing with Perez at all. Awful to watch and no amount of arse shaking at the end is gonna make me forget how bad the fights are. Seems to be working on a lot of horny sods but she’s rotten. Crazy thing is she’s gonna be in the Top 10 soon. Once again, just shows how shite womens Bantamweight really is. Apparently, Perez and Tracy Cortez are beefing now. Who cares?

Muin Gafurov derailed Rinya Nakamura pretty badly. Nakamura became another prospect to get their first taste of defeat on this card. Baffling gameplan from Nakamura, to be honest. Given his wrestling abilities, you’d have thought he’d go more that route here. He’d have had the advantage there anyway but Nakamura seemed content to just stand and strike. Fair enough if it’s working but it wasn’t. And once it became clear it wasn’t really working, you’d think he’d adapt and switch things up and go all in on his wrestling. No. He had the odd unsuccessful takedown attempt but mostly just continued to lose a subpar kickboxing match. Shame. I’m not gonna completely write him off after one loss but my enthusiasm and optimism for his potential took a big hit here. Good win and performance for Gafurov though.

Sopaj vs Turcios was fun and I was happy to see Sopaj rebound from that horrific KO in his debut and get his first UFC win. I think I said in the opening post that Sopaj’s debut vs Oliveira was a really entertaining fight before the KO, but Sopaj getting obliterated at the end meant anything good he did in the fight got wiped from memory. This was a bit of redemption. Looking forward to seeing more. He’s 1-1 in the UFC now but both were very enjoyable fights to watch.

Nice to see Tagir Ulanbekov actually show up to work for a change. He looked pretty good as well, handing Clayton Carpenter his first loss. Carpenter had looked quite promising in his previous fights but he seemed a bit too content to play guard at times in this one and that was probably part of his downfall. Problem is Ulanbekov will probably disappear for the rest of the year again now. See you in 2026, Tagir.



Not a killer card but not bad. Started a bit slow but heated up. The whole shitshow surrounding the main event and Tsarukyan’s withdrawal obviously hurt the card but Makhachev handled it like a champ should. Merab vs Umar was quality. Jiri bouncing back in style was great. Main card as a whole was really good actually and there were a couple of other little highlights on the prelims. Decent. Between this and the surprisingly fun Dern vs Ribas card last week, January’s been a solid start to the year. Not expecting much from 312 next month though. 

Edited January 21, 2025 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Does anyone else think the UFC should re-think their bonus system?

The two performance of the night bonuses went to Prochaska and Almeida but surely Barcelos and Gafurov deserved the shine, and the coin for coming in and utterly dominating massive betting favorites? Talbot was like a 1/12 favorite and Nakamura about 1/7 on.

Not saying the UFC might not have thrown em a few quid under the table, but it would be nice to see those performances highlighted.

Edited January 23, 2025 by Egg Shen

[Dai]

Wasnt Performance of the Night called Knockout of the Night before, and they just changed the name of it because its a better look for the company? May be making that up, but if they still view it as an unoffical KO of the night bonus then who got it makes a bit more sense.

[Egg Shen]

They used to do KO of the night and Sub of the night.