Merab Dvalishvili discusses his options following his title defense victory over Umar Nurmagomedov at Saturday’s UFC 311.

Umar Nurmagomedov was the perfect fighter in the early rounds against UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili. While fatigue did not make a coward of Nurmagomedov, it certainly caused his downfall at UFC 311 on Saturday as Dvalishvili outpointed his foe en route to a unanimous decision win (48-47, 48-47, 49-46) to retain the bantamweight title.

Something had to give Saturday night at Intuit Dome. In the UFC 311 co-main event, Merab Dvalishvili was making his first bantamweight title defense and riding an 11-fight winning streak. Umar Nurmagomedov entered the Octagon with his own eye-popping resume: Not only had the challenger never lost a fight in six UFC performances,

Reiner de Ridder debuted with the UFC in November, but UFC 311 was his real welcome party. De Ridder, a former two-division champion under the ONE Championship banner, delivered a flawless performance inside Los Angeles' Intuit Dome on Saturday that will do him wonders moving forward.

Kevin Holland made it clear heading into UFC 311 that he wasn't overly impressed with Reinier de Ridder. Perhaps now his opinion has changed. De Ridder, the former two-division ONE Championship title holder,