LAS VEGAS — The Sphere, Las Vegas’ transformational new masterpiece, stole the present Saturday evening at UFC 306, however Merab Dvalishvili placed on a efficiency to not be forgotten in capturing the bantamweight championship with a unanimous resolution over Sean O’Malley.
The judges scored it 49-46, 48-47 and 48-47 in favor of Dvalishvili (18-4), a 33-year-old from the nation of Georgia. He used a ground-and-pound assault to regulate a lot of the motion in opposition to O’Malley (18-2).
O’Malley, 29, who lives in Phoenix, was a slight -125 favourite at BetMGM Sportsbook.
Valentina Shevchenko reclaimed the ladies’s flyweight championship with all three judges awarding her a 50-45 victory over Alexa Grasso within the co-main occasion.
This was the third consecutive assembly between the 2 after Grasso took Shevchenko’s belt within the first match. The second was a draw.
The third one wasn’t nearer, with the 36-year-old Shevchenko (24-4-1) utilizing a ground-and-pound technique to win all three rounds over 31-year-old Grasso (16-4-1) on the judges’ playing cards.
“It’s so enormous,” mentioned Shevchenko, who’s from Kyrgyzstan. “It like a dream come true combating within the Sphere.”
This present on the Sphere was in contrast to any present within the UFC’s historical past, taking full benefit of the 160,000-square-foot high-definition LED display screen to create an outer-space kind really feel because the pay-per-view portion of the cardboard was about to start.
UFC President Dana White known as this card his “love letter to Mexico,” and mini tales of the neighboring nation’s historical past and tradition as a part of a celebration of the nation’s Independence Day weekend had been informed on the display screen all through the night. One created the phantasm the sector was transferring because the video performed out.
Seven Mexican fighters, together with Grasso, populated the cardboard, and chants from the group of “Mexico” broke out a number of occasions.
Aztec pyramids seeming to hover over one contest within the octagon modified from evening to morning. One other battle befell with a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Lifeless) vacation scene that included dressed up female and male skeletons lighting up the display screen. Different matches had related scenes dominating the background.
The display screen was used all through to introduce a tell-of-the-tape of every fighter, and highlights had been proven on the constructing’s exterior.
White has mentioned it is a one-and-done given the overwhelming endeavor to place collectively the present in addition to the roughly $20 million value. To assist pay for it, White secured a title sponsor for the primary time for one in all his PPV playing cards, making the official title Riyadh Season Noche UFC.
However White has waffled because the occasion approached, and it’s doable the UFC could have future playing cards on the Sphere, these the group is contractually obligated to MGM Resorts, which incorporates T-Cell Area. An exception was made for this evening and maybe there will likely be extra.
T-Cell had its personal tribute to Mexican Independence Day three miles away with Canelo Alvarez successful by unanimous resolution because the headline fighter.
UFC’s in-house manufacturing workforce crew labored with Antigravity Academy manufacturing led by founder and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Carlos López Estrada to place collectively this occasion.
Jon Jones returns to octagon
Heavyweight champion Jon Jones, thought-about by many to be the best fighter in UFC historical past, will face Stipe Miocic in UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at New York’s Madison Sq. Backyard. Jones has not fought since transferring up from gentle heavyweight to say the heavyweight crown with a first-round submission of Ciryl Gane on March 4, 2023.
Jones, who was within the crowd sporting a black cowboy hat, and Miocic had been scheduled to battle final yr, however a pectoral harm compelled Jones to postpone.