UFC 313 live coverage: Alex Pereira draws a big, partisan crowd to T-Mobile Arena

Carlos Leal, right, punches Alex Morono in a welterweight bout during UFC 313 at T-Mobile Arena Saturday, March 8, 2025. Leal won the bout by TKO in the first round. Photo by Steve Marcus

Alex Pereira merchandise is everywhere.

It’s not difficult to comprehend the popularity of the UFC light heavyweight champion for anyone near T-Mobile Arena tonight. His fans have overtaken the Strip.

They’re apparently showing their confidence with their money too. Pereira has moved back to the favorite, mostly around -120 (i.e. risking $130 to win $100), in his UFC 313 main event bout against Magomed Ankalaev, who was favored as recently as earlier this morning.

The first UFC pay-per-view event of the year in Las Vegas has a long-awaited blockbuster up top.

The challenger Ankalaev has pursued Pereira for a long time, practically ever since he won the title in 2023, and now gets his chance. Some see the well-rounded Ankalaev as a nightmare stylistic matchup for Pereira; others see him as another name the champion is sure to add to his highly-impressive resume of five straight wins.   

Pereira vs. Ankalaev should be action-packed, but it has competition to end up the most exciting bout on the main card.

Two lightweight fights scheduled in direct support, the co-main event between Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev and a featured showdown pitting Jalin Turner against Ignacio Bahamondes, both figure to be slugfests.

Fiziev was a late replacement for the injured Dan Hooker. Gaethje and Fiziev previously fought two years ago at UFC 286 in London with the former winning a closely-contested majority decision.

Many believed Fiziev actually won, and now the Kazahkstan native will get a chance at vengeance.

The first two fights scheduled for the pay-per-view include a pair of veterans in women’s strawweight Amanda Lemos and lightweight King Green. Up-and-coming Brazilian striker Mauricio Ruffy takes on Green, while 23-year-old Iasmin Lucindo looks for the biggest win of her career against Lemos.

All those fighters dream of one day challenging for the title in their respective division like Ankalaev is doing for the first time tonight against Pereira. The crowd will be on Pereira’s side but it remains to be seen if that factors into the fight.

Stay tuned to lasvegassun.com for full coverage of the UFC 313 main card and read below for results from the preliminary bouts.

Brunno Ferreira stopped Armen Petrosyan with a submission (arm triangle) at 4:27 of the second round of their middleweight bout. Ferreira dominated the brief duration of the fight, and Petrosyan even had a point deducted for repeated illegal groin kicks. 

Carlos Leal dominated Alex Morono with a TKO victory at 4:16 of the first round. Leal closed as the biggest favorite on the card, at odds of more than -1000, and looked every bit of the sky-high odds.  

Boos rained down as Bruce Buffer read the scores that gave Marion Santos a split-decision victory (29-28, 29-28, 28-29) over Francis Marshall in a welterweight bout. The latter seemed to easily win the first two rounds including scoring a near-knockout early, but the judges sided with the Brazilian Santos who opened a cut on his opponent’s face late.

Ozzy Diaz rallied to beat Djorden Ribiero dos Santos by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) in the middleweight opener of the night. Santos picked apart Diaz on the feet early, but gassed by the third round.