The final UFC Pay-Per-View event of 2024 arrives this Saturday at the T-Mobile in Las Vegas, with UFC 310 arguably being one of the more interesting cards of the year.
What it lacks in star power the PPV event makes up for in intrigue. The main event sees the arrival of RIZIN champ Kai Asakura, granted an immediate title shot against Alexandre Pantoja. Immediate title shots are almost unheard of in the promotion’s modern era, outside of the PRIDE, WEC, and Strikeforce acquisitions.
Even Kayla Harrison didn’t land herself an immediate title shot, despite two Olympic gold medals and two PFL championships. Yet Asakura gets just that out of the gate, and a win for the Japanese star could see the promotion head back to Japan with names like Tatsuro Taira and Rei Tsuruya in tow.
The UFC 310 co-main event is no less compelling. Originally, Shavkat Rakhmonov was set to challenge for Belal Muhammad’s welterweight title. With Muhammad forced off the card, instead it’s Ian Machado Garry, forgoing a main event at UFC Tampa, stepping in to face arguably the scariest name at 170lbs.
As Garry himself has noted, it’s not a fight he had to take. He had a marquee billing. The opportunity to secure a title shot, however, was too much to pass up. And so Garry’s 15-0 record goes up against Rakhmonov’s 18-0 record.
Ahead of UFC 310, the promotion holds the traditional pre-fight press conference. Catch that above, starting at 10:15PM PT, 1:15AM ET.
