The Sphere in Las Vegas now officially has two title fights set for this fall.
UFC CEO Dana White announced the full fight card for Sept. 14 at UFC 306, which will be headlined with a bantamweight title bout between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili. UFC women’s flyweight champion Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko will fight for a third time in the co-main event. UFC 306 will mark the first combat sports event to be held at the new venue just off the Las Vegas Strip.
O’Malley first claimed the bantamweight title belt with a TKO victory over Aljamain Sterling last fall. He successfully defended that title with a unanimous decision win over Marlon Vera in March, too. The 29-year-old will enter his fight against Dvalishvili with an 18-1 record and 12 KOs. He’s won six straight fights dating back to 2021, too, with the exception of a no-contest against Pedro Munhoz.
Dvalishvili, on the other hand, has been trending toward a title fight for quite some time. He’s on an incredible 10-fight win streak dating back to 2018, and he last beat Henry Cejudo via unanimous decision at UFC 298 earlier this year. The 33-year-old holds a 17-4 record with three KOs in his career.
The co-main event featuring Grasso defending her women’s flyweight title against former champion Shevchenko will mark the third straight fight between the two. Grasso beat Shevchenko to claim the flyweight belt first in March 2023 with a fourth-round submission, and then she defended that title in a rematch that ended in a draw last fall. Grasso will enter with a 16-3-1 record. Shevchenko, who held the title for years before her first loss to Grasso, holds a 23-4-1 record with eight KOs.
Here’s a look at the fights scheduled so far for UFC 306.
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Raul Rosas Jr. vs. Aori Qileng
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Yazmin Jáuregui vs. Kelten Souza
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Kevin Borjas vs. Edgar Chairez
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Irene Aldana vs. Norma Dumont
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Ignacio Bahamondes vs. Manuel Torres
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Ode Osbourne vs. Ronaldo Rodríguez
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Esteban Ribovics vs. Daniel Zelluber
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Brian Ortega vs. Diego Lopez
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Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko
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Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili
