Islam Makhachev vs. Arman Tsarukyan, UFC 311 Fight Card Revealed by Dana White

UFC 311 will have quite the headline event.

UFC president Dana White revealed Wednesday that Islam Makhachev will fight Arman Tsarukyan in the main event of the UFC 311 card on Jan. 18. The fight will take place at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles:

Makhachev will attempt to defend his lightweight title when he faces Tsarukyan, but that isn't the only headlining title bout on the card.

Merab Dvalishvili will go against Umar Nurmagomedov with the bantamweight title on the line.

It is a massive combination of fights early in the 2025 calendar year for UFC, and the showdown between Makhachev and Tsarukyan will be a rematch from their memorable 2019 clash when the former notched a hard-fought unanimous decision victory.

Makhachev has won nine straight since that meeting and will enter the January rematch on a 14-match winning streak. He counts a title win over Charles Oliveira and three title defenses against Alexander Volkanovski (twice) and Dustin Poirier in that streak.

Yet he isn't the only one with momentum ahead of UFC 311.

Tsarukyan has won nine of his last 10, including a split-decision victory over Oliveira.

"You can't say it's going to be an easy fight," Tsarukyan told Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie when discussing a possible rematch with Makhachev. "I try to think it's going to be easy for me, and I don't want to think it's going to be a decision. I want to finish him."

As for the co-main event, Dvalishvili also has plenty of momentum with an ongoing 11-fight win streak.

However, Nurmagomedov will be anything but a straightforward victory. After all, he is 18-0 as a pro and is coming off an impressive unanimous decision victory over Cory Sandhagen.