UFC Fight Card Schedule For January 2025

With the new year upon us, it’s time to look at the UFC schedule for January 2025. The premier MMA promotion is on break until January 11, but will have two events for the first month of the new year, both taking place in the United States.

UFC Schedule January 2025: UFC Vegas 101

The first fight card on the 2025 UFC schedule, UFC Vegas 101 takes place on Saturday, January 11 from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The main event of the card is a rematch between top-10 ranked strawweights Mackenzie Dern and Amanda Ribas. We look at the opening betting odds for the full UFC Vegas 101 fight card.

Mackenzie Dern (14-5) is the No. 6 fighter in the official UFC strawweight rankings. A member of the UFC roster since 2018, the 31-year-old Dern is an accomplished grappler, with multiple world titles to her name in the world of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Dern has had an up-and-down run with the UFC over the past four years. She opened her UFC career with a 5-1 record, with her sole loss being a 2019 decision setback to Ribas. Since then, Dern has gone 4-4 with the promotion. She has not won back-to-back fights since 2020-21.

Dern ended a two-fight losing skid in August when she scored a decision win over Loopy Godinez.

Amanda Ribas (13-5) is the No. 8 fighter in the women’s 115-pound division. She is also ranked No. 10 at 125 pounds.

Ribas signed with the UFC in 2017, but her promotional debut was delayed following a positive drug test. Ribas was initially given a two-year suspension when her sample came back positive for ostarine. That suspension was terminated in early May 2019, when it was determined that the positive test came from a contaminated supplement. Ribas made her UFC debut in June 2019 with a submission win over Emily Whitmire.

Ribas’ most recent outing was a March 2024 decision loss to former two-time UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas at 125 pounds.

UFC Vegas 101: Dern vs. Ribas 2 streams on ESPN+ with prelims starting at 4:00 p.m. ET and the main card beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET.

UFC Schedule January 2025: UFC Vegas 101 Full Fight Card

UFC Vegas 101 Main Card

Mackenzie Dern vs. Amanda Ribas

Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Carlston Harris

César Almeida vs. Abdul Razak Alhassan

Chris Curtis vs. Roman Kopylov

Christian Rodriguez vs. Austin Bashi

Punahele Soriano vs. Uroš Medić

UFC Vegas 101: Preliminary Card

Jose Johnson vs. Felipe Bunes

Marco Tulio vs. Ihor Potieria

Thiago Moisés vs. Trey Ogden

Preston Parsons vs. Andreas Gustafsson

Ernesta Kareckaitė vs. Nicolle Caliari

Magomed Gadzhiyasulov vs. Bruno Lopes

Fatima Kline vs. Victoria Dudakova

Nurullo Aliev vs. Yanal Ashmouz

UFC Schedule January 2025: UFC 311

The first UFC pay-per-view card on the 2025 schedule, UFC 311, is booked with 14 fights. The January 18 fight card features two title fights at the top of the event. In the main event, UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev puts his title on the line against Arman Tsarukyan in a rematch. Meanwhile, the co-headlining contest pits UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili against Umar Nurmagomedov. We look at the opening betting odds for the UFC 311 fight card.

Since their first meeting, which took place in 2019, and Makhachev won by unanimous decision, Makhachev (26-1) has compiled a 9-0 record with seven finishes (five submissions, two knockouts) and two decisions. Makhachev captured the vacant UFC lightweight title in October 2022 with a submission win over former UFC 155-pound titleholder Charles Oliveira.

Makhachev has defended his crown three times since defeating Oliveira. His first two title defenses were a decision win and knockout of then-UFC featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski. In his most recent outing, Makhachev submitted former UFC interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 302.

Makhachev has earned fight-night bonus awards for each of his UFC title fights.

Tsarukyan (22-3) has a 9-1 mark since his loss to Makhachev, which came in his UFC debut. He rebounded from that defeat with five consecutive victories before dropping a decision to Mateusz Gamrot in June 2022.

After the loss to Gamrot, Tsarukyan ran off four straight wins with two knockouts and two decisions. He is coming off a split-decision victory over Oliveira at UFC 300 in April.

Today, Tsarukyan is the No. 1 fighter in the official UFC lightweight rankings, while Makhachev is the No. 1 fighter in the promotion’s pound-for-pound rankings.

Merab Dvalishvili (18-4), a long-time training partner of former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling stepped into the spotlight of the promotion’s 135-pound division in September 2014 when he scored a unanimous decision win over then-champion Sean O’Malley in the main event of UFC 306.

The 33-year-old Dvalishvili joined the UFC in 2017 as much-hyped prospect. At the time, Dvalishvili was 7-2 and had won and defended the Ring of Combat bantamweight crown.

Dvalishvili did not have a smooth start to his UFC run, losing his first two fights. Falling to Frankie Saenz by decision, and the second, to Ricky Simon, via submission. In September 2018, things clicked in place for the Serra-Longo Fight Team product, and he has not lost since.

Heading into UFC 306, Dvalishvili was on a 10-fight winning streak. Prior to his matchup against O’Malley, Dvalishvili had defeated Marlon Moraes, Jose Aldo, Petr Yan, and Henry Cejudo. The win over O’Malley stretched his winning streak to 11 straight. Even with one of those victories coming at a catchweight of 140 pounds, Dvalishvili holds the record for longest winning streak in the division at 10, beating Sterling’s mark of nine wins in a row.

Umar Nurmagomedov (18-0) is the brother of Bellator lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov and the cousin of former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. He is currently the No. 2 fighter in the official UFC bantamweight rankings.

The 28-year-old joined the UFC in January 2021 with a submission win over Sergey Morozov. Since that win, he has picked up another five victories in the UFC most recently beating former interim UFC title challenger Cory Sandhagen in a five-round main event scrap in August.

The win over Sandhagen answered any questions about Nurmagomedov’s upside. Before the fight there was some criticism that Nurmagomedov had not defeated anyone of note. However, his dominant win over the then No. 2 ranked bantamweight put that talk to rest.

Nurmagomedov looked the part of a future champion against Sandhagen. He went five rounds, never lost his cool, stayed within himself, and stuck to a strong game plan.

UFC 311 PPV Card

Islam Makhachev vs. Arman Tsarukyan

Merab Dvalishvili vs. Umar Nurmagomedov

Beneil Dariush vs. Renato Moicano

Jiří Procházka vs. Jamahal Hill

Kevin Holland vs. Reinier de Ridder

UFC 311 Preliminary card

Johnny Walker vs. Bogdan Guskov

Payton Talbott vs. Raoni Barcelos

Jailton Almeida vs.Serghei Spivac

Zachary Reese vs. Sedriques Dumas

UFC 311 Early Preliminary Card

Grant Dawson vs. Carlos Diego Ferreira

Karol Rosa vs. Ailín Pérez

Rinya Nakamura vs. Muin Gafurov

Ricky Turcios vs. Bernardo Sopaj

Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Clayton Carpenter

*UFC 311 fight card is subject to change

UFC 311 takes place on January 18, 2025 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. The pay-per-view portion of the event begins at 10:00 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV following prelims on ESPN2 and early prelims on ESPN+.

We will have more news and stories on the UFC Schedule for 2025 as more fights get booked.