Umar Nurmagomedov was the perfect fighter in the early rounds against UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili. While fatigue did not make a coward of Nurmagomedov, it certainly caused his downfall at UFC 311 on Saturday as Dvalishvili outpointed his foe en route to a unanimous decision win (48-47, 48-47, 49-46) to retain the bantamweight title.

Merab Dvalishvili is inevitable. Despite Umar Nurmagomedov's best efforts in his first crack at UFC gold, Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) proved his championship metal by getting better as the fight reached deep waters.

Merab Dvalishvili ended the undefeated run of Umar Nurmagomedov for his first bantamweight title defense on Saturday at UFC 311. Entering as the betting underdog, Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) pulled off the METHOD upset over Nurmagomedov (18-1 MMA,

Kevin Holland said he wasn’t overly impressed with Reinier de Ridder heading into UFC 311, but perhaps his opinion now has changed.

Reiner de Ridder debuted with the UFC in November, but UFC 311 was his real welcome party. De Ridder, a former two-division champion under the ONE Championship banner, delivered a flawless performance inside Los Angeles' Intuit Dome on Saturday that will do him wonders moving forward.