The wait is over. Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira defends his crown against Magomed Ankalaev in a heavily anticipated, must-see showdown between two of the sport's best Saturday at UFC 313 inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The main card will be on ESPN+ pay-per-view starting at 10 p.m. ET, with prelims on ESPNews, ESPN+ and Disney+ at 8 p.m. ET and early prelims on ESPN+ and Disney+ at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Pereira (12-2-0), a former middleweight champion, moved up to 205 pounds and snatched the light heavyweight belt from Jiří Procházka with a second-round TKO at UFC 295 in November 2023. Pereira then knocked out Procházka for the second time in seven months at UFC 303 to retain the title. The 37-year-old Brazilian had two other successful title defenses in 2024, stopping Jamahal Hill in April and Khalil Rountree Jr. in October.
Now, Pereira sets his sights on Ankalaev.
Ankalaev (20-1-1) looks to be the contender who can end Pereira's reign of dominance. The 32-year-old Russian enters the bout having won back-to-back fights and has the grappling prowess to make it three in a row and dethrone Pereira. Will he pull it off, or just be the latest challenger to fall victim to Pereira's trademark knockout? How are experts breaking it down? What do the fighters have to say? Here is the fight card, how to watch it and a collection of all of the UFC 313 essentials:
UFC 313 fight card
ESPN+ PPV, 10 p.m. ET
Light heavyweight championship: Alex Pereira (c) vs. Magomed Ankalaev
Lightweight: Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev
Lightweight: Jalin Turner vs. Ignacio Bahamondes
Women's strawweight: Amanda Lemos vs. Iasmin Lucindo
Lightweight: King Green vs. Mauricio Ruffy
ESPNews/ESPN+/Disney+, 8 p.m. ET
Heavyweight: Curtis Blaydes vs. Rizvan Kuniev
Flyweight: Joshua Van vs. Rei Tsuruya
Middleweight: Brunno Ferreira vs. Armen Petrosyan
Welterweight: Alex Morono vs. Carlos Leal
ESPN+/Disney+, 6 p.m. ET
Featherweight: Mairon Santos vs. Francis Marshall
Middleweight: Djorden Santos vs. Ozzy Diaz
Featherweight: Chris Gutierrez vs. John Castaneda
(c) = defending champion
How to watch the fights
Watch the PPV and all other fights on ESPN+: Get ESPN+ here.
Purchase the fight: Find out how here.
There's also FightCenter, which offers live updates for every UFC card.