UFC 306 Mailbag: Sphere, Merab Dvalishvili and Valentina Shevchenko title wins, and the Fight of the Year

This past Saturday UFC 306 took place at Sphere in Las Vegas, in a fight card that was promised to be “the greatest live action sporting event of all-time.” While “Noche UFC” might not have delivered on those lofty expectations, it still was packed with great fights and meaningful results, most notably the two new UFC champions. In the co-main event, Valentina Shevchenko avenged her previous loss to Alexa Grasso, winning a dominant decision to reclaim the flyweight title. Then in the main event, Merab Dvalishvili backed up his words and dominated Sean O’Malley to win the bantamweight title.

A lot of important and exciting stuff happened so let’s talk about it all by answering questions from our readers.

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Sphere

“Was it REALLY the greatest live sporting event of all time? From what I saw on TV & read on Twitter, it seemed like a funky venue for fights.”

Funnily enough, we did a reaction piece that addresses this very question, plus all our other takeaways from UFC 306. You should go read that right now.

Done?

Terrific!

Heading into UFC 306, Sphere was billed as the true star of the show and that played out on Saturday. Yes, two new champions were crowned, but the biggest talking point from the event was all the bells and whistles the UFC brought for this “once-in-a-lifetime” show. Vignettes before every fight, drones, an army of octagon girls with different themed outfits, the whole nine yards. And by every account I’ve heard from people who attended UFC 306, it was indeed quite spectacular. That experience didn’t entirely translate to those watching from home though.

Don’t get me wrong, UFC 306 was very cool. The crowd shots looked insane, and the broad idea of telling a cohesive story through the night was fun and well executed. But ultimately, fights aren’t a concert and so there was an almost jarring dichotomy between the production and then the fights. The production was ambitious and new and exciting, but the fights were ultimately the same fights you get anywhere else in the UFC, and at home, there’s not much you can do to spice that up. Viewers are ostensibly there to watch the fights, so you’ve got to show that, and that negates any of the cool stuff Sphere can do.

That being said, this was still a very fun event from the UFC. We constantly decry them for not taking any risks and delivering the same production week over week, year over year, and this shows why: because the UFC can do a lot of cool stuff when they feel compelled to try, and it makes the experience unique and interesting. I hope they take the success of this show and run with it and we see a little more personality in future fight cards. The product will be all the better for it.

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Best chapter

“What was your favorite chapter of the show tonight? Mine personally was the Día de Los Muertos/Day of the Dead chapter.”

So if you missed the show, the biggest thing the UFC did for the main card was tell the story of Mexico between fights, in the form of little video package chapters (the UFC has all of them up on its YouTube channel). It began with the creation of the universe, came right up through the modern day, and culminated in an imagining of the future of Mexico. It was a big, ambitious idea, and one that I thought they pulled off fairly well.

I agree that aesthetically speaking, the Día de Los Muertos section (Chapter Three) was the best, especially if you’re factoring in the octagon girl outfits. They were easily the best ones of the evening. But I also enjoyed Chapter Two, covering early civilizations, and Chapter Five, the modern day fighters and heroes of Mexico.

The weakest of the chapters was easily the final one, looking ahead to the future of Mexico, and that makes sense I guess as it’s easier to tell stories about the past than predict the future. Even still, I thought the graphics on Chapter Six were the worst and not that far off from mobile game advertisements you see. Still, very cool to seem the UFC try new things.

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Merab Dvalishvili

“I know its early, but Merab has 11 straight wins (bantamweight record), all one sided dominations, 4 against ex-champions, 2 against pound-for-pound all-time greats. Even if he loses to Umar, how much more until he’s in the conversation for top 3/5 bantamweight ever?”

Dvalishvili is already in the conversation for top-5 greatest ever at bantamweight. Certainly not saying he’s got that locked up, but we’re talking about a division that’s still pretty young and hasn’t had a lot of clear-cut dominance at the top. Basically, anyone who has ever won a title at 135 pounds is in the conversation for top-5 all-time of the weight class.

Now, how long until he becomes the bantamweight GOAT? That’s a different question, but frankly, he’s not that far off it, because again, the weight class hasn’t had a dominant champion.

As of right now, Dominick Cruz is the bantamweight GOAT. He’s got five title defenses (across two different reigns) and that’s the trump card in any argument. It’s entirely possible that if he weren’t made out of a particularly brittle form of glass, that Cruz would have cemented himself as a true all-time great in the sport, regardless of weight class. But if I had wheels I’d be a wagon. So instead Cruz is left as the clear greatest ever at 135.

But that won’t last forever. Of Cruz’s five title defenses, two came against Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez. Yes, they are all-time great fighters, but the only reason they fought Cruz was because flyweight did not exist at the time. So in some sense we’re talking about a title reign that was Urijah Faber twice and Scott Jorgensen. Quality wins, but not insurmountable by any means.

Sterling was well on his way to establishing himself as bantamweight GOAT when he ran into O’Malley. Well, Merab just mushed O’Malley same as he has everyone on this current streak. It’s impressive, and now that he has the belt, subsequent wins mean more. If Dvalishvili can string together three title defenses, I’m very open to him taking the GOAT mantle, especially as bantamweight has only continued to improve in quality over the years.

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Umar Nurmagomedov

“How boring will Merab vs. Umar be?”

Of course, getting three title defenses is a lot easier said than done for Dvalishvili as it appears his first defense is going to come against Umar Nurmagomedov.

I’ve been loudly banging the drum about Umar for a long time at this point and confidently proclaimed him to be the best bantamweight on Earth about two years ago. His only issue was getting in the cage and proving it against the best in the world. Well, now he’s gotten to do it some, and I haven’t changed my mind one iota.

Dvalishvili is an exceptional fighter, but I can hardly think of a worse matchup for him than Nurmagomedov. Umar is his equal in wrestling (and possibly his superior), extremely crafty, and a FAR better striker. As I see it, the only clear advantage Dvalishvili has is his insane cardio, but that’s tough to bring to bear on a guy who has your number everywhere else.

And as a result, I don’t think that fight will be boring at all. For one, I enjoy Merab’s fights. This past weekend wasn’t exactly thrilling, but to me that came down to O’Malley seeming to be broken early and not trying to make a fight of it. But I have no issue watching Merab show off the peak of the current MMA wrestling metagame against the best fighters in the world. And against Umar, I doubt he’ll be able to. Umar will stuff takedowns, maybe take Merab down himself, and tune Dvalishvili up on the feet. It should be a good time.

Dvalishvili is a great fighter from a very good camp so we should never rule out his chances to surprise us, but Umar is coming.

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Sean O’Malley vs. Cory Sandhagen

“Sean vs. Cory. When?”

Heading into UFC 306 the question was whether Sean O’Malley could become the biggest star in the sport with an impressive win. Now it’s where does the former champion go from here? And there are a lot of options.

O’Malley vs. Sandhagen is a popular choice, one that Sandhagen himself is angling for and one that I would love to see. But there’s also possible matchups with Jose Aldo, Henry Cejudo, or Deiveson Figueiredo.

But if I’m putting on my Sean Shelby hat and matchmaking, my guess is we get O’Malley vs. Figueiredo next. Figgy Smalls wants a title shot but he’s the odd man out right not and he’ll need to fight again. If he beats O’Malley (which he must feel confident he can given the grappling advantage Dvalishvili just showed off) then he’s easily getting the first crack at the winner of Merab vs. Umar. And if Umar wins and O’Malley beats Figgy, he’s right there for another shot at the belt.

Meanwhile, Cejudo can fight Jose Aldo (after Aldo beats Mario Bautista) in a legend fight and Sandhagen and Petr Yan can rematch.

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Valentina Shevchenko

“Do you see Valentina going on to defend the belt multiple times again in her second reign?”

I do not.

Shevchenko is, at worst, the third greatest female fighter of all-time. Losing to Alexa Grasso could have ended her chance to chase down Amanda Nunes as the WMMA GOAT, but reclaiming the title brings it back as a possibility. If Shevchenko never got the belt back and instead started dropping fights, then the conversation is entirely over. Now that she is once again champion, both Shevchenko and Nunes dropped titles and recovered them, which brings her back to the table.

The women’s GOAT conversation is basically Nunes, Shevchenko, or Cris Cyborg. You can make other cases for Megumi Fujii and Joanna Jedrzejczyk, but they’re weaker than those two women. And for me, Cyborg isn’t really in the conversation either. Yes, she had an incredible run of dominance, but it was in a weight class that barely exists. Her opponents were all massively undersized or not very good. Her best win is Holly Holm, a bantamweight. Its not Cyborg’s fault that the opposition wasn’t there, but it is what it is. Fujii has the same issue and people don’t freak out about leaving her out of the conversation (also, getting iced by Nunes instantaneously really nukes Cyborg’s case).

So if the argument is Nunes vs. Shevchenko, and at this point, Nunes has the advantage. Both women have seven straight title defenses (Nunes’s come across two weight classes, even though women’s featherweight isn’t a real thing) but Nunes was generally more dominant in her performances and has two wins over Shevchenko, which serves as a trump card. If Shevchenko sticks around at 125 for awhile, and defends her title, I’ll be impressed but I’m not sure that gets her past the two-losses hump.

What does? Moving back up to bantamweight and becoming a two-division champion. Shevchenko is 36 years old and the bantamweight division is in dreadful shape. If she defends her belt against Manon Fiorot, I strongly suspect “Bullet” will make the case to challenge Kayla Harrison (who will have the belt by then). And if she does that and becomes a two-division champion over two real weight classes? Then you’re talking about the WMMA GOAT.

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Diego Lopes

“Do you see Diego Lopes facing the winner of Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway or facing Alexander Volkanovski in 2025?”

I know Volkanovski threw out the idea of fighting Lopes for an interim belt but frankly, I just don’t see that happening. Rightly or wrongly, Volk is next in line to fight the winner of Topuria vs. Holloway, and with that fight right around the corner, accepting another fight would be lunacy for him. He’ll wait it out.

Which means Lopes will have to find another opponent to earn his title shot against and there is one that’s so obvious I’ll be shocked if anything else happens: the winner of Movsar Evloev vs. Aljamain Sterling.

Evloev already deserves a title shot, and if he beats Sterling, he will super deserve it, but the UFC does not appear interested in doing him any favors. So given the beef between Movsar and Lopes, that rematch sells itself. And if Sterling wins, same thing, just without the beef. Sterling will need another win because of the logjam and so that fight as a true No. 1 contender matchup makes perfect sense.

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Fight of the Year

Esteban Ribovics v. Daniel Zellhuber, Hall of Fame worthy?”

Heading into UFC 306 I said that Ribovics vs. Zellhuber was going to steal the show and boy was I right. Those two put on one heck of a display earning Fight of the Night honors and potentially Fight of the Year honors for 2024. There’s still plenty of time left in the year obviously, but that matchup is on the short list right now.

And ultimately, that’s probably what will determine if it becomes a Hall of Fame fight. The action in it is undoubtedly worthy, but it’s really difficult for non-title fights to get inducted unless there is a damn good reason. There are simply so many great fights throughout history and title fights tend to be both the best and the most meaningful.

Of the nine fights currently enshrined, only three of them are modern-era non-title bouts: Mauricio Rua vs. Dan Henderson 1, Diego Sanchez vs. Clay Guida, and Cub Swanson vs. Doo Ho Choi. Shogun-Hendo and Cub vs. Choi were both Fights of the Year. That’s pretty much the bar for the Hall of Fame, so unless it wins that award this year, I’d say it’s unlikely.

Even if it doesn’t though, that was an all-timer of a third round and a sensational fight. Go back and watch it if you haven’t already.

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Jose Aldo

“Merab 0/16 takedowns against Aldo just keeps getting more and more incredible.”

And at altitude no less.

Jose Aldo is the GOAT. Real ones know.

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Thanks for reading, and thank you for everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send your tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer my favorite ones! Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see y’all next week.