The UFC hosted a Noche UFC event for UFC 306 which made history as the first live sporting event held at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The $23 million event paid homage to Mexican culture in celebration of Mexican Independence Day.
The card was headlined by a bantamweight title fight between reigning champion Sean O'Malley and the challenger, Georgia's Merab Dvalishvili. The pair had been feuding for months heading into the fight and it marked a highly-anticipated striker vs. grappler matchup. In the end, O'Malley was dominated over five rounds when Dvalishvili used his grappling to topple the UFC fan favorite.
In the co-main event, history was made when UFC flyweight champion Alexa Grasso took on the former flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko for the first-ever women's UFC title fight trilogy. Grasso dethroned Shevchenko in their first outing and they fought to a controversial draw in the third. But the third was all Shevchenko who went the full five rounds with Grasso and won easily across the board.