The first UFC PPV card of 2025 takes place this Saturday night at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles and with the release of the countdown preview, fight week is upon us.
As is pointed out at the start of the episode, all four fighters that will headline the card come from the area surrounding the Caucasus Mountains which just shows the talent that this region has produced.
The preview begins with the lightweight champion and the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, Islam Makhachev.
He talks about following in the footsteps of his friend, teammate and coach, Khabib Nurmagomedov who in some ways, passed him the torch by retiring in 2020.
By spending some time with Makhachev at home in Dagestan, we get to see a behind the scenes look at his training and his personal life away from competing with a trip to his farm.
On January 18, he faces an opponent that he has overcome once before but as Arman Tsarukyan recaps their first encounter, which was his UFC debut, it's clear to see how much he has evolved since 2019.
Tsarukyan talks UFC cameras through his entire journey in MMA and how it began with him watching Nurmagomedov and being inspired by "The Eagle" before he made his way to the Octagon and set his sights on becoming champion.
From here, we follow Makhachev to Las Vegas for the final stages of his training camp where coach Khabib talks us through the preparations for both the lightweight champion and his cousin, the bantamweight title challenger Umar Nurmagomedov.
In the preview of the co-main event, cameras capture some great insight into Nurmagomedov's rise and the incredibly accomplishments of the defending titleholder, Merab Dvalishvili, who returns to Georgia as a hero after beating Sean O'Malley for the 135-pound gold in September.
Whilst they don't have the history that Makhachev and Tsarukyan do, there is clear tension between both men with Dvalishvili feeling disrespected by his first challenger.
Watch the full episode below:
