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,

Merab Dvalishvili is inevitable. Despite Umar Nurmagomedov's best efforts in his first crack at UFC gold, Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) proved his championship metal by getting better as the fight reached deep waters.