UFC featherweight champion Sean O’Malley and women’s flyweight champion Alexa Grasso are defending their belts Saturday (10 p.m. ET, ESPN+ PPV) at a venue the UFC has never seen before, and may never see again. UFC 306 will be held at Sphere in Las Vegas, where fighters will enter the Octagon surrounded by hundreds of millions of pixels.
The main event will see one of the UFC’s most lethal strikers, O’Malley, take on Merab Dvalishvili, currently on a 10-bout win streak. O’Malley captured the featherweight belt against Aljamain Sterling and defended it against Marlon Vera, but it’s Dvalishvili that might represent his biggest test before he can be considered one of the UFC’s elite fighters.
The fight was a pick-em at BetMGM as of Saturday afternoon.
Grasso, meanwhile, will continue a trilogy against Valentina Shevchenko in the co-main event. She stunned Shevchenko for the belt last year and held onto it via a split draw for her first title defense, but the UFC opted to give the former champ one more crack at her old title. Grasso is currently a -130 favorite.
The whole card will have a Mexican theme, with every non-main event bout featuring a fighter of Mexican heritage as part of the UFC’s “Noche UFC” promotion. The theme will be featured heavily on the Sphere’s video screen, but the $20 million expense of the venue has led to UFC president Dana White declaring it will be a one-off.
Follow all of the action going down in Perth with our live tracker below.
UFC 306 live tracker
Live1 update
UFC 306: Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili
Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024 – Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada
Main card (Start time 10 p.m. ET, ESPN+ PPV)
Prelims (Start time 8 p.m. ET, ESPNEWS/ESPN+)
Early Prelims (Start time 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+/UFC Fight Pass)
