UFC 306 LIVE: Blockbuster title fight to headline the 'greatest ...

The UFC celebrates Mexican Independence Day in style on Monday as Sean O’Malley defends his bantamweight title in the main event against Merab Dvalishvili in Las Vegas.

UFC 306, also known as “Riyadh Season Noche UFC”, will be held inside the famous Sphere in what Dana White forecasts will be “the greatest sporting event of all time”.

The building features 160,000 square feet of wraparound LED screen, which is set to alternate between 360-degree short films and immersive animated environments dubbed “worlds”.

If that is not enough, foxsports.com.au reported earlier in the week that once every fight starts, the UFC’s senior vice president of production and programming said it is going to be “unlike anything anyone has ever seen”.

NOCHE UFC: O’MALLEY V DVALISHVILI | SUN 15 SEP 12PM AEST | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports. Main Event on Kayo Sports and Foxtel is the exclusive home of UFC Pay-Per-View.

To achieve that vision, some of Hollywood’s biggest directors, producers, animators and visual artists have been hired by the UFC, with 29 Emmy wins between them.

Fans will also be in haptic seats, where they will feel the action like never before, as their seats “provide force feedback based on the action in the Octagon”, according to the UFC.

Of course, the focus will still be on the action inside the octagon, with O’Malley looking to make it eights win in a row when he defends his belt against No.1 ranked contender Dvalishvili.

Elsewhere, the co-main event sees Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko fight for the UFC flyweight belt in the third meeting between the two rivals.

INSANE 40-SECOND EXCHANGE, SUBMISSION UPSET ON PRELIMINARY CARD

Earlier, Edgar Cháirez and Joshua Van produced one of the rounds of the year to kick off the preliminary card in dramatic fashion.

Van looked to be on the verge of securing a second-round stoppage, landing a flurry of punches before a nice jab then opened up the uppercut.

Cháirez answered back with a solid kick to the body as he looked to stop Van, who at this point was walking him down and mixed in a few shots to the body before landing upstairs.

The punches kept coming from Van, including a pair of right hands and then a few looping shots which cleanly landed, with Cháirez seemingly on the cusp of going down.

But somehow he stayed on his feet and even came back with a few knees to the body in a wild 40-second exchange.

In the end, Van came out on top via unanimous decision (29-28 x3).

In the second fight of the preliminary card, Ketlen Souza came out of nowhere to pull off a stunning first-round submission upset over Yazmin Jauregui.

Souza dropped Jauregui with a nasty left hook before quickly transition to the rear-naked choke, putting her highly-fancied rival to sleep to claim a statement victory.

The statement finishes kept coming, with Ignacio Bahamondes bringing Manuel Torres’ six-fight winning streak to a stunning end with a first-round TKO victory.

Bahamondes dropped Torres with a huge right hand midway through the opening round and then looked to unleash the ground-and-pound, although Torres did well to cover up initially.

Eventually Torres was able to get to his feet and showed little sign of hesitation as he quickly turned aggressor, going after Bahamondes and landing a few shots.

It was a risk from Torres, potentially leaving himself open to counter shots from Bahamondes, although the strategy seemed to work — that was until a counter right saw him crumble to the canvas again and this time Bahamondes got the finish.

In the first fight of the card, Raul Rosas Jr. earned a unanimous decision over Aoriqileng.

You can follow all the action in our live blog below!

UFC 306 FIGHT CARD RESULTS

Main Card

Sean O’Malley (c) vs. Merab Dvalishvili for the UFC bantamweight title

Alexa Grasso (c) vs. Valentina Shevchenko 3 for the UFC flyweight title

Brian Ortega vs. Diego Lopes — featherweight

Daniel Zellhuber vs. Esteban Ribovics — lightweights

Ronaldo Rodríguez vs. Ode Osbourne — flyweights

Prelims

Irena Aldana vs. Norma Dumont — bantamweights

Ignacio Bahamondes def. Manuel Torres via TKO — lightweights

Ketlen Souza def. Yazmin Jauregui via submission — strawweights

Joshua Van def. Edgar Chairez via unanimous decision (29-28 x3) — flyweights

Early Prelims

Raul Rosas Jr. def. Aoriqileng by unanimous decision (29-28 x3) — bantamweights

HOW TO WATCH

You can order UFC 306 NOW with Main Event on Kayo Sports. Main Event on Kayo Sports and Foxtel is the exclusive home of UFC Pay-Per-View.

START TIME

The early prelims get underway at 9.30am AEST as young rising star Raul Rosas Jr. looks to continue to build momentum after bouncing back from his first career loss in September last year.

The preliminary card then begins at 10am with the main card starting at 12pm and the main event expected at around 2.30pm.

LIVE BLOG

Follow live updates from UFC 306 below! Can’t see the blog? Click here!