The final UFC pay-per-view in the U.S. will see two championship fights headline the penultimate card of 2025.
UF 323 goes down on Saturday from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and will see the UFC exit the pay-per-view industry in the U.S. before moving to Paramount+ in the new year, where customers will have access to all events with a monthly subscription.
The final major show of the year sees bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili attempt to cement ‘Fighter of the Year’ status with his fourth title defense of the year in a rematch with Petr Yan.
Dvalishvili’s resume over the past eleven months includes Umar Nurmagomedov, Sean O’Malley, and Cory Sandhagen. A fourth win will mark 2025 as one of the greatest years any fighter has put together, akin to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in 2006 and Jon Jones in 2011.
The two last fought in March 2023 in a three-round contest where Dvalishvili completed 11 of 49 takedowns and nearly doubled Yan in significant strikes.
Since the loss, Yan has put together a run of three victories against Song Yadong, Deiveson Figueiredo, and Marcus McGhee to get another crack at Dvalishvili.
The co-main event sees flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja defend his belt against 24-year-old Joshua Van, who has shot up the rankings and enters the Octagon for the fourth time in 2025. He punched his ticket for the title opportunity after a decision win against Brandon Royval in June.
Pantoja has won his last eight fights, including his title victory against Brandon Moreno over two years ago. This will be his fifth defense, which is rarified air in the current UFC championship climate.
Henry Cejudo is leaning toward another retirement as he meets Payton Talbott in a match-up of a former champion with a rising prospect. Cejudo has said this will be his last fight, although he kept the door open ever so slightly. The former two-division champion is no longer in his prime, and the question will be whether his wrestling can be handled by Talbott. The 27-year-old has one blemish on his record when he was controlled by Raoni Barcelos last January and rebounded with a decision win against Felipe Lima. It’s an intriguing fight and would skyrocket Talbott’s stock if he can unseat the 2008 Olympic gold medalist.
Two fighters missed on Friday as Brunno Ferreira was three pounds heavy for his middleweight contest against Marvin Vettori. The bout will proceed at a catchweight, and Ferreria forfeits twenty percent of his purse.
Mairon Santos missed the featherweight limit for his fight against Muhammad Naimov and will only hand over twenty percent.
MAIN CARD
- UFC Bantamweight Championship: Merab Dvalishvili © vs. Petr Yan
- UFC Flyweight Championship: Alexandre Pantoja © vs. Joshua Van
- Brandon Moreno vs. Tatsuro Taira
- Henry Cejudo vs. Payton Talbott
- Jan Blachowicz vs. Bogdan Guskov
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Grant Dawson vs. Manuel Torres
- Terrance McKinney vs. Chris Duncan
- Maycee Barber vs. Karine Silva
- Nazim Sadykov vs. Farès Ziam
EARLY PRELIMS
- Marvin Vettori vs. Bruno Ferreira*
- Edson Barboza vs. Jalin Turner
- Iwo Baraniewski vs. İbo Aslan
- Mansur Abdul-Malik vs. Antonio Trócoli
- Muhammad Naimov vs. Mairon Santos*
*Missed weight and fined 20 percent of their purse, fight will proceed at a catchweight
POST Wrestling’s UFC 323 review with Jack Wannan & Eric Marcotte will be available Sunday for all POST Wrestling Café members
