As always, the latest action on offer inside the Octagon has seen some climb the ladder toward contention and others fall away. And in the aftermath of UFC 306 (Noche UFC), MMA News has you covered with this week’s updates to the official UFC rankings. Men’s Pound-For-Pound: Merab Dvalishvili closed out Saturday’s event with his long-awaited championship […]
And in the aftermath of UFC 306 (Noche UFC), MMA News has you covered with this week’s updates to the official UFC rankings.
Men’s Pound-For-Pound: Merab Dvalishvili closed out Saturday’s event with his long-awaited championship crowning. As a result, the bantamweight kingpin has debuted on the P4P list at #7, one position above interim heavyweight titleholder Tom Aspinall. Further up, welterweight champ Belal Muhammad (#5) has jumped his middleweight counterpart Dricus Du Plessis (#6).
The defeated O’Malley, meanwhile, has slid seven positions to #13. Dvalishvili’s friend and teammate Aljamain Sterling is out of the top 15 entirely following the Georgian’s arrival.
An impressive performance on the biggest stage of them all @MerabDvalishvil is the NEW bantamweight champion of the world
Women’s Pound-for-Pound: Valentina Shevchenko is once again the flyweight queen, and she’s also back on the P4P mountaintop. “Bullet” has climbed two places back to top spot, while previous #1 Alexa Grasso has fallen to #3 following her lopsided loss to Shevchenko in their trilogy.
Women’s Strawweight: No changes.
Women’s Flyweight: The sole change at 125 pounds has seen Grasso slip back to top contender status, swapping positions with now-champ Shevchenko.
Women’s Bantamweight: Norma Dumont secured the biggest win of her career in the Noche UFC featured prelim, outpointing a badly damaged Irene Aldana. The result has seen the Brazilian ascend by three positions to #5 at 135 pounds. The defeated Mexican, on the other hand, is down just one spot to #6.
Flyweight: In the male 125-pound weight class, Asu Almabayev has moved up one place to share #14 with the recently retired Matt Schnell.
Bantamweight: Like in the women’s flyweight division, the only change in the men’s 135-pound division came with the switch on the throne. With Dvalishvili now occupying it, O’Malley is the #1-ranked bantamweight.
Featherweight: The biggest climber this week is the charging Diego Lopes, who got the better of former two-time title challenger and longtime top-five contender Brian Ortega on Saturday night. The Mexico-residing Brazilian has risen by a mammoth 10 positions to #3. “T-City,” meanwhile, has been relegated to #5.
He continues to show why he's a fan favorite
After his 5th straight win who do you want @DiegoLopesMMA in the Octagon with next? #UFC306
As always, the latest action on offer inside the Octagon has seen some climb the ladder toward contention and others fall away. And in the aftermath of UFC 306 (Noche UFC), MMA News has you covered with this week’s updates to the official UFC rankings. Men’s Pound-For-Pound: Merab Dvalishvili closed out Saturday’s event with his long-awaited championship […]
And in the aftermath of UFC 306 (Noche UFC), MMA News has you covered with this week’s updates to the official UFC rankings.
Men’s Pound-For-Pound: Merab Dvalishvili closed out Saturday’s event with his long-awaited championship crowning. As a result, the bantamweight kingpin has debuted on the P4P list at #7, one position above interim heavyweight titleholder Tom Aspinall. Further up, welterweight champ Belal Muhammad (#5) has jumped his middleweight counterpart Dricus Du Plessis (#6).
The defeated O’Malley, meanwhile, has slid seven positions to #13. Dvalishvili’s friend and teammate Aljamain Sterling is out of the top 15 entirely following the Georgian’s arrival.
An impressive performance on the biggest stage of them all @MerabDvalishvil is the NEW bantamweight champion of the world
Women’s Pound-for-Pound: Valentina Shevchenko is once again the flyweight queen, and she’s also back on the P4P mountaintop. “Bullet” has climbed two places back to top spot, while previous #1 Alexa Grasso has fallen to #3 following her lopsided loss to Shevchenko in their trilogy.
Women’s Strawweight: No changes.
Women’s Flyweight: The sole change at 125 pounds has seen Grasso slip back to top contender status, swapping positions with now-champ Shevchenko.
Women’s Bantamweight: Norma Dumont secured the biggest win of her career in the Noche UFC featured prelim, outpointing a badly damaged Irene Aldana. The result has seen the Brazilian ascend by three positions to #5 at 135 pounds. The defeated Mexican, on the other hand, is down just one spot to #6.
Flyweight: In the male 125-pound weight class, Asu Almabayev has moved up one place to share #14 with the recently retired Matt Schnell.
Bantamweight: Like in the women’s flyweight division, the only change in the men’s 135-pound division came with the switch on the throne. With Dvalishvili now occupying it, O’Malley is the #1-ranked bantamweight.
Featherweight: The biggest climber this week is the charging Diego Lopes, who got the better of former two-time title challenger and longtime top-five contender Brian Ortega on Saturday night. The Mexico-residing Brazilian has risen by a mammoth 10 positions to #3. “T-City,” meanwhile, has been relegated to #5.
He continues to show why he's a fan favorite
After his 5th straight win who do you want @DiegoLopesMMA in the Octagon with next? #UFC306
Jorge Masvidal was not a fan of Herb Dean interjecting himself into Saturday’s main event clash between Sean O’Malley…
Jorge Masvidal was not a fan of Herb Dean interjecting himself into Saturday’s main event clash between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili.
It was clear from the get-go that the longtime referee wasn’t going to tolerate any shenanigans in the UFC 306 — also known as Riyadh Season Noche UFC — headliner. Seconds after the bout began, Dean briefly paused the action to warn both Dvalishvili and O’Malley’s coach, Tim Welch, to stop engaging with one another. The moment was undoubtedly odd, but nothing that had any sort of impact on the fight itself.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only time Dean got involved in the five-round headliner. Throughout the contest, Dean continuously encouraged the fighters to work whether they were standing, on the mat, or clinched up against the fence.
Herb dean need to be fired he a referee trying to encourage Sean Omally to work harder never seen before #UFC306pic.twitter.com/IEWnQLsOHB
The commentary trio of Jon Anik, Joe Rogan, and Daniel Cormier expressed their frustration with Dean’s never-ending commands which eventually trickled down to social media where fighters and fans alike slammed the Pasadena native.
That includes the UFC’s original BMF, Jorge Masvidal, who held nothing back in his review of Dean’s performance.
Merab Dvalishvili dominates lackluster Noche UFC title fight
Dvalishvili’s fight with O’Malley had a little bit of everything; a stoppage for “excessive coaching,” an incident where Dean literally had to tell ‘The Machine’ not to “kiss” his opponent, and, of course, Dean’s constant demands to “keep working.”
But after all the antics and the drama were over, fans witnessed the crowning of a new UFC bantamweight champion. Dvalishvili ran away with the fight on the scorecards, securing a decisive unanimous decision to both extend his streak to 11 and claim his first piece of gold inside the Octagon.
Valentina Shevchenko closed out her trilogy with Alexa Grasso in dominant fashion in the co-main event of UFC 306. The former champion was able to reclaim the title after a controversial rematch that ended in a draw, following their first encounter where she was shockingly submitted. Though the second fight between them was very close, […]
The former champion was able to reclaim the title after a controversial rematch that ended in a draw, following their first encounter where she was shockingly submitted.
The takedowns from Shevchenko totally shut down Grasso’s boxing skills and aside from a few submission attempts, she wasn’t able to stop the challenger’s takedowns which led to her being stuck on the floor for the majority of the duration.
Robert Whittaker Questions How The Match-Up Was Ever Close After Watching UFC 306
On a recent episode of his MMArcade Podcast, former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker gave his analysis of the co-main event.
He pointed to the fact that there was a huge gap between them this time around compared to their prior encounter at last year’s Noche UFC.
Even though Grasso was able to secure one of the biggest upsets in UFC history when she submitted Shevchenko at UFC 285, she was down on the scorecards at the time.
Having seen how easy the “Bullet” made the fight look at points inside the Sphere, Whittaker questioned how this match-up was ever competitive.
“They’ve fought three times now. I don’t know how Grasso won the first, well I do, she was losing until she submitted Shevchenko right? And then I don’t know how the second one was a draw because this third fight like Grasso did nothing. I don’t want to come down hard on her okay because maybe she was just shut down that heavy but it was a draw last fight.
“I don’t know, it didn’t look like Grasso wanted to be in that fight. It looked like a significant level difference this time around.”
Merab Dvalishvili proved in the main event of UFC 306 that he had the counter to Sean O’Malley’s style. The new bantamweight champion was able to close the distance on “Suga” and implement his grappling and despite several close scorecards, the challenger was seemingly in control of the fight for the vast majority of the […]
O’Malley did have some success with his striking, especially in the final moments of the fight but he wasn’t able to catch Dvalishvili in the same way that he was able to his teammate, Aljamain Sterling.
The “Funkmaster” has openly admitted that he made some crucial mistakes in that fight back at UFC 292 that as we saw this past weekend, could have been very different if Sterling had more effectively closed the gap on his opponent.
Henry Cejudo Reviews Sean O’Malley’s Performance At UFC 306
On a recent episode of the Pound 4 Pound podcast, former bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo weighed in with his thoughts on the fight.
Having faced both Sterling and Dvalishvili in the past, Cejudo felt that the challenger would be too much for O’Malley over five rounds.
He also believes that O’Malley’s title back at UFC 292 was a “fluke” after he was able to stop Sterling without really having his grappling game put to the test.
Cejudo made reference to how he was able to put up a better fight against Dvalishvili at UFC 298, where he lost via unanimous decision.
“What can I say? I predicted these things. Sean is not accustomed to going five rounds and he is no accustomed to people on his legs and I just felt like, I still go back and say hey, that fight with Aljamain Sterling, that was a fluke too. Aljamain was still in that fight and people thought I was just hating. It’s like no, I’ve been in there with Merab, I did a whole lot better than Sean did when I fought Merab. I mean I took down Merab, like Merab is lucky that I had that groin injury.”
Even if UFC doesn’t head back to the Sphere again, there’s a lesson in their success debut at the location.
After Saturday night, the big discussion coming out of Las Vegas wasn’t the fact that Merab Dvalishvili finally reached the top of the bantamweight division, or that Valentina Shevchenko regained her top spot at flyweight. The most talked about part of the show wasn’t even any of the fights, but instead, the way they were presented.
UFC 306 was arguably the top fight promotion’s most innovative event yet, seamlessly mixing storytelling and art into a high-profile MMA lineup. It was an experience that the sport had never seen before, and one it might never get again.
Image Credit: UFC
The Sphere Overshadows Title Fight Evening
It’s incredibly rare that the theatrics of a UFC event outdoes the show’s fights. But on Saturday, that’s exactly what happened.
UFC 306 took place at the MSG Sphere, a venue which has gone viral seemingly every other week since its official opening in late 2023. The 18,000-seat-capacity venue took more than $2 billion to build, decking the building out with cutting-edge LED technology that has set itself apart from any other location on the planet.
In a city full of glitz and glam, The Sphere’s glowing exterior has made it stick out from the rest of Las Vegas. On the inside, a 160,000-square-foot LED screen powers one-of-a-kind experiences.
Clips of concerts from bands like U2 and Dead & Company showed the venue’s impressive visual capabilities in previous months. However, what had never been seen until recently was how the location could be used for a sporting event.
It was hard to properly set expectations for UFC 306. We knew what concerts at the Sphere looked like, and we were certainly familiar with what a good MMA card looked like, but we had never before seen anything like what was set to take place on Saturday.
Early in the evening, some started to worry that the show would be underwhelming. The Sphere’s towering LED backdrop provided some opening visuals that didn’t provide the stunning atmosphere that many had paid to see. However, anyone who wrote off the show’s potential in the first couple of hours would eat crow later that evening. UFC ended up saving the venue’s potential for the main card, which played out like one long story that climaxed with the main event.
UFC 306
By 7 p.m. local time, UFC 306’s presentation kicked into full gear. Over the next few hours, the Sphere stole the show and had the best performance of the night. In between each fight, the screen aired a six-part short film directed by Carlos López Estrada titled “For Mexico, For All Time.” López Estrada’s vision for the series was to show the history of Mexican people in a series of styles. The film starts by discussing early civilizations, later covering tradition and history, and eventually zooming past the current day and imagining what the culture’s future could look like.
Telling the story of Mexico’s rich history in roughly 12 minutes was the nearly impossible task that López Estrada and his team had to tackle. In that time they told an empowering and inspiring story of a culture that has overcome great adversity to survive. It explained the values and traditions of Mexican society, overall representing the country’s people in a way that should make them proud.
Chapter Three: Rituals & Traditions
Through the rituals and traditions of Mexico's earliest civilizations, the essence of the ancestors lives on, immortalized in customs that endure across generations.
When the film wasn’t airing, the pay-per-view portion of the night took place in “worlds.” These animated backdrops teleported the fights into all-new atmospheres, coinciding with the chapters of the movie. The Sphere’s incredible picture quality made these settings look unbelievably immersive. Some online said the show was the closest thing we’ll get to real-life versions of Mortal Kombat characters fighting on different in-game maps, and it’s hard to argue against that.
By the end of the night, even the biggest UFC skeptic should have been willing to admit that the event lived up to the incredibly high expectations that the promotion set for it.
Despite the top fights on the card being not entirely exciting—both titles changing hands due to un-competitive wrestling-heavy performances, something that doesn’t interest the average MMA fan—Saturday will be remembered as one of the biggest nights of this year in the sport.
What Can UFC Learn From The Sphere?
As enjoyable as UFC 306 was, there’s something bittersweet about the fact that UFC CEO Dana White has stated that it’s a one-and-done for the promotion. Due to their exclusive Vegas partnership with the T-Mobile Arena, plus the massive alleged eight-figure production cost that came with Saturday’s card, there’s fair reason to believe that they won’t head back to the venue despite their latest show being a massive hit.
Even if there will only ever be one UFC show in the Sphere, there’s an important lesson to take from Saturday night. So much of the anticipation swirling around the event was due to the fact that it would be something new, something different from the week-to-week churn that the brand produces. Shouldn’t they lean into breaking that repetition, even if it’s in smaller ways?
Over the past couple of decades, UFC has nailed down a formula on how to present their live events in person and on broadcasts. The way that most cards from the promotion are shown create a great atmosphere for audiences and hype up fans watching at home. But, sticking to a formula means that the shows have repetition. People know how the show is run every week, it’s always the same song and dance, and the only thing that really changes is who is fighting in the cage. For a sport that is arguably more linked to entertainment and professional wrestling than any other, why shouldn’t more avenues for storytelling and artistic expression be explored?
Part of what felt interesting about UFC 306 was the fact that it was simply something different. Whether or not the show would live up to expectations, we knew it was going to stray away from the run-of-the-mill broadcast format that we see on UFC cards.
With more than 40 events per year, so much of the UFC calendar blends together. And when the fights aren’t great, there’s nothing going for the shows. Instead of making cards solely about who is competing that evening, UFC should lean more into the entertainment side of the product and try more special-themed cards.
Home Run
Think of it this way: If it wasn’t for the Sphere, Saturday’s card would probably be considered one of the weaker PPVs of the year. Both title fights weren’t very competitive, the card was a shorter-than-usual 10 fights, and there were few ranked talents competing lower in the lineup. But the show having a unique presentation gave fans something else to enjoy as well, making the evening not just about the fights.
As much as renting out the Sphere and pouring millions into production is great, it wouldn’t even take that much to make UFC cards more special. Take for example Caposa’s idea to host a Pride FC tribute show in Japan, which could pay homage to a trailblazing MMA promotion that UFC owns the intellectual property of.
UFC 306 will be remembered as an absolute home run for the promotion, delivering the impressive mix of art and sport that they hoped to achieve. Nothing can match what they presented on Saturday at the Sphere unless, of course, they decide to head back to the venue someday. Here’s hoping that they will do something even a fraction as cool as this event in the future.
@MerabDvalishvil is the NEW bantamweight champion of the world
Jorge Masvidal was not a fan of Herb Dean interjecting himself into Saturday’s main event clash between Sean O’Malley…
Even if UFC doesn’t head back to the Sphere again, there’s a lesson in their success debut at the location.