UFC 280 LIVE results: Islam Makhachev submits Charles Oliveira to win lightweight title

The pugilistic festivities kick off with Karol Rosa vs Lina Lansberg in a women’s bantamweight bout!

Here is the full card for today and this evening, as scheduled:

Main card

Charles Oliveira vs Islam Makhachev (vacant lightweight title)

Aljamain Sterling (C) vs TJ Dillashaw (bantamweight title)

Petr Yan vs Sean O’Malley (bantamweight)

Beneil Dariush vs Mateusz Gamrot (lightweight)

Katlyn Chookagian vs Manon Fiorot (women’s flyweight)

Prelims

Belal Muhammad vs Sean Brady (welterweight)

Makhmud Muradov vs Caio Borralho (middleweight)

Volkan Oezdemir vs Nikita Krylov (light heavyweight)

Abubakar Nurmagomedov vs Gadzhi Omargadzhiev (welterweight)

Armen Petrosyan vs AJ Dobson (middleweight)

Muhammad Mokaev vs Malcolm Gordon (flyweight)

Karol Rosa vs Lina Lansberg (women’s bantamweight)

Here we go, the show is starting! This should be fun...

A late change of timings, everyone: The UFC 280 early prelims are now set to begin at 3.30pm BST at the earliest.

We’ll keep you updated as we go!

Two of tonight’s combatants feature in The Independent’s pound-for-pound UFC rankings, and one gets an honourable mention...

Find out who, and where they rank, right here:

And our final long-read piece ahead of UFC 280... an exclusive interview with Aljamain Sterling:

“It will be nice to punch a guy [who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs] in the face, because I really still believe I can beat him even if he’s juiced to the gills,” Sterling told The Independent ahead of his bantamweight title defence against TJ Dillashaw.

“I just like making fun of him, because I think he’s mentally weak if he needs to do that. It’s a guy who’s clean and got here the right way versus a guy who had to cut corners, and I still think he’s cutting corners, but that’s not gonna change the fact that we’re gonna get locked in a cage and punch each other in the face. I just think I’m gonna do a better job of that.”

Full interview here:

Next up, a breakdown of the UFC 280 co-main event. Here’s our own Ollie Cooper on Sterling vs Dillashaw:

“Dillashaw’s confidence will be boosted when looking back at his experience in title fights, of which he has competed in seven and impressively won five. Aljo cannot afford to underestimate this hardened championship veteran, who looked very dangerous in what was nothing short of a brutal comeback fight against Cory Sandhagen last July.

“But the biggest talking point after Dillashaw’s comeback bout was the severity of the knee injury he sustained, which has kept him out of the Octagon for nearly 15 months – a factor that could outweigh his title-fight experience here, especially against this calibre of opponent. It is true that he came in ‘cold’ against Sandhagen and got the job done in impressive fashion, but we are yet to see the impact of such a bad injury on a fighter who relies so much on explosivity and durability.”

Full preview here:

We’ve got some great content for you around today’s fights.

First up, here’s former UFC title challenger, commentator and analyst Dan Hardy on this evening’s main event:

“I expect Oliveira to take the initiative with aggression. I think he’s gonna strike to grapple and try to make Makhachev feel very uncomfortable and flustered in that first round.

“But I think people are gonna be surprised that Oliveira will also most likely initiate the grappling. I think people are expecting Oliveira to want to keep the fight standing, and that if Makhachev decides he wants to take this to the floor, he’s gonna go for a double-leg [takedown] into an Oliveira guillotine [choke].

“But the more I watch Makhachev, the more I realise he only level-changes for takedowns on his terms; he doesn’t do it under pressure.”

Much more fantastic insight from Dan below – not only on the tactics that Oliveira and Makhachev will likely employ tonight, but also on their mentalities and how Khabib’s presence will factor in:

Here are your important timings and viewing information for UFC 280:

As we’ll say again and again throughout the day, this is a *stacked* card.

Here is the card in full: