UFC 311 headliners announced, potential Dana White-Saudi Arabia rift, Gordon Ryan says "steroids are legal": MMA News Roundup

Dana White revealed the main event and co-main event of UFC 311 in an official announcement on Wednesday. Meanwhile, some recent comments by Saudi Arabia's Turki Alalshikh may potentially spark a rift with White, as per a seasoned journalist.

Here are your top combat sports updates from today:

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Dana White announces UFC 311 headliners

In an announcement on social media, Dana White announced the main and co-main event of UFC 311. The pay-per-view event will take place on Jan. 18, 2025, at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.

Islam Makhachev will defend his lightweight belt against Arman Tsarukyan in a much-awaited rematch in the main event of the card. The co-main event will feature Umar Nurmagomedoc challenging Merab Dvalishvili for the latter's bantamweight belt.

White also shared a fun anecdote about how the Dvalishvili vs. Nurmagomedov fight got booked just the night before the announcement.

The card is also rumored to feature a light heavyweight clash between Jiri Prochazka and Jamahal Hill. The matchup was announced during the post-event broadcast of UFC Tampa and was later confirmed by both fighters.

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Ariel Helwani suspects Turki Alalshikh may have upset Dana White

Veteran MMA reporter Ariel Helwani believes that Dana White may not be happy with Turki Alalshikh's recent comments about potentially booking Jon Jones vs. Francis Ngannou, despite the UFC-Riyadh Season partnership.

In an Instagram comment, White dismissed the idea, stating that Jones will be fighting Tom Aspinall next.

Helwani, who has a roller-coaster history with him, said on his show that someone other than White talking about influencing the promotion's matchmaking is an unprecedented situation that hasn't ever happened before. The change may rub White the wrong way, with the journalist theorizing:

"What's fascinating about this is for the first time ever - for the first time in the Dana White-UFC era, which now spans some 24-plus years - there is someone out there who can talk about making fights, and it's not Dana White. UFC fights. And I can't imagine that is something that he loves."

He added that Alalshikh's comments pushing White to unofficially confirm Jones vs. Aspinall was an interesting outcome of the situation.

"No one's ever been able to say that. No one's had that luxury. No one's had that power... I just think this dynamic is fascinating."

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Gordon Ryan responds to Mikey Musumeci's PED allegations

Mikey Musumeci doubled down on his previous comments about the use of PEDs in jiu-jitsu during a UFC media scrum. He brought up Gordon Ryan and Craig Jones' names and vowed to work toward fixing "horrible ethics" issues and making the sport a cleaner, drug-free one.

Ryan, who has always been vocal about having no problem with using performance enhancers, retorted at Musumeci in a lengthy comment under MMA Fighting's Instagram post:

"The guy talking about ethics and morals has been on 37 different [jiu-jitsu] teams, got what he could from them, and left... Get off your moral high ground, dork. This guy is talking about cheating. Steroids are legal in every competition minus specific IBJJF competitions since 2019. It's not cheating.

"All these [eggplant emoji] suckers have my name in their speaking from some moral high ground, yet can't even do the most basic things in the sport, like stay loyal to those who brought you up."

Read the full comment here.