Sean O’Malley is set to star at Sphere.
UFC CEO Dana White announced Friday on social media that O’Malley will defend the bantamweight title against No. 1 contender Merab Dvalishvili in the main event of UFC 306, which takes place Sept. 14 at Sphere in Las Vegas. White has touted the pay-per-view show as a one-off, due to it being the most expensive production in promotional history.
Due to a sponsorship deal, the event is officially branded as Riyadh Season Noche UFC.
O’Malley seeks the second defense of his championship, following title fight wins against Aljamain Sterling and Marlon “Chito” Vera. “Sugar” has won six straight fights, excluding a no contest against Pedro Munhoz.
On the strength of a 10-fight win streak, Dvalishvili has kept himself at the very front of the contenders’ line for the past few years. Were it not for his close friend and training partner Sterling reigning as champion, it’s likely Dvalishvili would have challenged for UFC gold earlier. As it stands, he now gets his shot at O’Malley with Sterling having lost and moved to the featherweight division.
White also announced the co-main event as the trilogy bout between TUF 32 coaches, UFC flyweight champion Alexa Grasso and former champ Valentina Shevchenko. Grasso captured the title with a fourth-round submission of Shevchenko in 2023, then defended it with a controversial split draw at the promotion’s first Noche UFC event.
A re-booked matchup between two-time featherweight title challenger Brian Ortega and top up-and-comer Diego Lopes highlights the rest of the pay-per-view main card, which also includes Daniel Zellhuber vs. Esteban Ribovics and Ode Osbourne vs. Ronaldo Rodriguez.
The complete UFC 306 fight card can be seen below.
