The UFC’s debut at Sphere is in the books.
Merab Dvalishvili captured the bantamweight title on Saturday, defeating Sean O’Malley via unanimous decision in the UFC 306 main event in Las Vegas.
In the co-headliner, Valentina Shevchenko shut out Alexa Grasso in their trilogy bout to regain the women’s flyweight belt.
Here are five takeaways from the pay-per-view event.
Home run or not, Sphere was a unique experience
One thing hardcore fans have wanted from the UFC for years is a bit more creativity in its production.
Historically, the UFC can hold an event at Madison Square Garden or at a stadium in Australia and you can’t tell the difference watching on TV. It’s both a dream and a curse – the UFC can set up shop anywhere and put out a good product, but it gets repetitive.
UFC CEO Dana White has never been in favor of extravagant walkouts or anything too over the top, instead preferring to let the fights themselves be the star of the show. But the UFC went all out with its first (and potentially last) event at Sphere.
The UFC 306 production got off to a slow start, but by the time the main card rolled around, the visuals were breathtaking – even watching on TV at home. There were some doubts going in, but it’s fair to say the UFC used Sphere’s 160,000-square-foot LED screen to its full effect.
Perhaps you thought the UFC’s debut at Sphere would look a little different than it did. Sure, the LED backdrop could’ve been incorporated into the walkouts a bit more. Or the storytelling could’ve been more coherent. Or the event could’ve been shorter. Nothing’s ever perfect, but this was a damn good first attempt at a live sporting event inside such a unique venue like Sphere.
White said it himself – this was a different experience than what MMA fans usually get on a Saturday night. And when the UFC’s back at the Apex next month, you’ll be grateful it happened.
Dvalishvili got past O’Malley with ease, but his toughest test awaits
Dvalishvili was the bantamweight division’s boogeyman for a long time, the relentless wrestler with an endless gas tank that few talked about and even fewer wanted to face. Finally given a chance to capture UFC gold after winning 10 straight fights, Dvalishvili did what Dvalishvili does; he executed a perfect game plan and shut down O’Malley’s offense. And now the man appropriately nicknamed “The Machine” is whom the rest of the division is chasing.
Though it wasn’t the most entertaining main event, Dvalishvili put on an impressive performance by completing six takedowns, racking up 10 minutes of control time, and even landing more significant strikes than O’Malley. Dvalishvili said it best after the fight – he made the former champion look “normal.”
But Dvalishvili can’t – or at least shouldn’t – get too comfortable as the new king of the 135-pound division. There’s a new boogeyman waiting in the wings that has the capability of testing Dvalishvili like no one else. Enter Umar Nurmagomedov, whom White said last month would likely face the O’Malley-Dvalishvili winner.
If there’s anyone who can neutralize Dvalishvili’s wrestling, it’s Nurmagomedov, who lives up to the famous last name with his grueling, elite-level grappling. The key here is that Nurmagomedov showed in his most recent win over Cory Sandhagen last month that he can strike, too. Whenever Dvalishvili and Nurmagomedov meet in the Octagon – because, yes, that does seem inevitable – there’s a good chance their ground games will cancel each other out and we’ll get a kickboxing match instead. And on paper, that doesn’t necessarily bode well for Dvalishvili’s chances.
O’Malley has a lot of fight left in him
It’s hard to imagine a worse outcome for O’Malley than what transpired. His biggest moment of the fight – and really the only time he came close to threatening Dvalishvili – was in the last 90 seconds, and by then it was far too late to mount a comeback.
The UFC built its Sphere card around O’Malley for a reason. He had a chance to break even further into the mainstream and might’ve been the second-biggest star in the sport had he won. But, in many ways, he blew it, and the “Suga” era came to a screeching halt before it could really get going.
It’s not all bad news for O’Malley, though.
He’s still just 29 years old. He’s in his prime and should be able to use this loss to get better. Although this backstage moment might’ve been more for show than anything else, at least O’Malley is already recognizing he needs better takedown defense.
The road back to the title promises to be a tough one, because Dvalishvili and Nurmagomedov are both stylistic nightmares for O’Malley. But as long as he can make the necessary improvements, he’ll still be a factor in the bantamweight division for years to come. This is far from the last we’ve seen of O’Malley as a contender.
Shevchenko’s legacy continues to grow
Surprise, surprise. The flyweight queen is back.
Just when we thought Shevchenko, one of the greatest women’s fighters of all time, might’ve finally lost a step over the last year and a half, she delivered one of the most dominant performances of her career to regain the throne and become the first two-time champion in women’s 125-pound history.
It wasn’t the prettiest victory, because once Shevchenko discovered she could take Grasso down at will, she never looked back. Shevchenko scored eight takedowns in the fight, resulting in 16 minutes of control time but not a ton of damage. Grasso defended well on the ground, but Shevchenko completely shut down her offense.
Ultimately, Shevchenko did what she needed to do to snap a two-fight winless streak and reestablish herself as one of the best active fighters in women’s MMA. Doing so at the age of 36 – and in her 22nd year as a pro MMA fighter – is ridiculously impressive. This title win closes the gap between Shevchenko and Amanda Nunes, the consensus women’s GOAT, a little bit. An already great legacy is now even greater.
And if you thought Shevchenko was done as a championship-level flyweight, you were very wrong.
Lopes is a legitimate contender at 145 pounds
Diego Lopes entered the featherweight title mix with a huge win over longtime contender Brian Ortega on Saturday.
Lopes will likely be a candidate for Fighter of the Year in December after scoring his third victory of 2024. He’s had a quick rise since debuting in the UFC in May 2023, and it’s been thrilling to watch. In the span of 16 months, Lopes went from losing a short-notice bout as a relative unknown (against Movsar Evloev of all people) to taking out one of the 10 best fighters in featherweight history.
His wins over Sodiq Yusuff and Dan Ige were impressive, but they didn’t quite propel him to contention. This one did. Ortega was ranked No. 3 and Lopes No. 12 going in, and now Lopes might be just one victory away from a shot at Ilia Topuria’s title.
