We have our headliners for the first UFC PPV of 2025 and to the surprise of a lot of fans, we've got two title fights topping the bill at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California.
It has been known for some time that the promotion was targeting the next lightweight title defence from Islam Makhachev for the main event of this card on January 18.
Number one contender Arman Tsarukyan was always going to be next for the champion following his win over Charles Oliveira at UFC 300 in April but several factors delayed the fight until 2025.
In 2019, Tsarukyan made his short notice UFC debut against Makhachev and gave the pound-for-pound number one a tough test which set up an inevitable rematch down the line.
With both men now occupying the two top spots at 155-pounds, it's time to run it back in a fight that has got the hardcore fans incredibly excited.
What a lot of fight fans didn't know is that Makhachev vs. Tsarukyan 2 wouldn't be the only title fight that is set to kick off 2025.
It's set to be a busy night for Khabib Nurmagomedov and the rest of his team because they now have back-to-back title fights to attend to.
Before his long-time training partner is the last man to make the walk in California, it will be Khabib's cousin that will look to bring yet another world title back to their camp.
In the co-main event, Merab Dvalishvili will put the bantamweight title on the line against the undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov.
Between them, these two grappling specialists have won 17 consecutive UFC fights with Dvalishvili capping off his incredible win streak by beating Sean O'Malley in September to become the champion.
Just one month prior, Nurmagomedov earned his biggest win to date when he defeated Cory Sandhagen over five rounds.
There has been some debate in recent months as to whether Dvalishvili could end up fighting someone else because he didn't seem overly sold on the idea of Nurmagomedov as the next challenger because he only has one win over a ranked opponent.
However, as Dana White said during his announcement of these fights, Dvalishvili had enough of being disrespected so he arrived into the UFC offices and called for this fight to happen as soon as possible.
