The final UFC pay-per-view of 2025 will feature a headliner.
On Monday, UFC CEO Dana White announced that bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili (21-4) will make his record fourth defense of the year when he rematches Petr Yan (19-5) in the main event of UFC 323 on December 6th at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
No UFC fighter has ever successfully defended a title four times in a calendar year.
The co-main event for UFC 323 has also been announced, with flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja (30-5) set to defend his title against Joshua Bunn (15-2). Pantoja now defends his 125-pound title for the fifth consecutive year.
The news was actually broken by Bunn’s teammate Michael Aswell. He insisted in his post-fight interview at UFC Rio on Saturday that Aswell will be on the same card as his teammate after he finished Lucas Almeida in the first round.
Dvalishvili, currently No. 3 on the MMA fighting pound-for-pound list, has won 14 straight fights since starting his UFC career 0-2. He defeated Cory Sandhagen in October, marking his third title defense after Sean O’Malley and Umar Nurmagomedov earlier this year.
In their first fight in March 2023, Dvalishvili defeated Yan by unanimous decision. The loss marked Yan’s third straight slump, but he bounced back with three consecutive wins, and both fighters have publicly talked about wanting to bounce back.
Pantoja has already successfully defended the belt once, defeating Kai Kara-France via third-round submission at UFC 317 in June of this year. His other wins as champion are against Kai Asakura, Steve Artheg, and Brandon Roybal. Among the UFC champions, Pantoja currently has the longest active defense streak at just three.
This is a big opportunity for Van, who just turned 24 in October and has been fighting professionally since 2021. Vann finished seven of his first eight opponents and emerged as a top prospect before signing with the UFC in 2023. He has won five straight, including a key win over Fight of the Year candidate Roybal at UFC 317, and his UFC record stands at 8-1.
In addition to the two title fights, former bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo returns to face rising star Peyton Talbot in an intriguing matchup at 135 pounds. Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz will also look to make a comeback when he takes on Bogdan Guskov in the final pay-per-view event of 2025.
The Dec. 6 event also marks the end of UFC and ESPN’s seven-year broadcast partnership, with the promotion moving into a new seven-year deal with Paramount in 2026.