Dricus Du Plessis vs Khamzat Chimaev – UFC 319: Live score and round-by-round updates as

The first Brit to get a featherweight title shot, surely now? Volk has given it the green light already – the best night of Murphy’s burgeoning career.

Murphy on the mic: ‘This sport is all about moments and I just created one. I believed in myself and I’m next in line, let’s go Volkanovski! Pico is good, hats off to him, it’s the hardest first few minutes I’ve ever had. He’s too aggressive. I said it in my pre-fight interview that I’d use his aggression against him. Can I just say, my team-mate Jordan deserves to be in the UFC, please Dana, he’s ready.’

This is one of the most brutal, brilliant finishes I’ve ever seen. Pico was pushing the pressure, winning the round but absorbing some nasty counter shots.

Then out of nowhere, Murphy spins, elbows Pico in the top of the head, he’s out before he his the floor and the Brit lands a hammer fist before the referee can get there to stop him. Pico is still out cold.

Lerone Murphy is undefeated in the UFC and finally within touching distance of a featherweight title shot. He’s given the shining light of a co-main slot on the big stage now against a newcomer with a huge profile and hype behind him, Aaron Pico. The former Bellator man is now with the biggest MMA promotion in the world and we’ll find out tonight if he really is the elite fighter people think.

$50k on the way for Prates, who says it is his birthday tomorrow and asks Dana White cageside for both a bonus and to sign his mate. He also wants to fight on the upcoming Brazil card and the UFC president accepts two of his three requests on the spot.

Pay this man his bonus right now. A buzzer-beating spinning elbow finish of Neal for Prates has the crowd on their feet. Only the ninth KO of its kind in UFC history. Prates was starting to dominate the round after an entertaining opening with both men landing successfully. It was Prates with more of a mixed attack with kicks and knees to the body but that highlight-reel finish is the only thing people will remember and rightly so. Vicious.

Prates is one of the most dangerous rising stars at welterweight but recently suffered his first setback in defeat by Ian Garry. He’ll be looking to bounce back tonight against the vastly experienced Neal, who is no slouch on the feet and should offer a really solid examination.

MVP had his hand raised and says: ‘I wanted to push a bit more and made a silly mistake and he is so strong on top. Chicago it has been a massive honour to fight in front of you, it wasn’t what I expected but I hope you guys enjoyed this. I still have thoughts on 170 but if there are great fights to be had I’ll also perform at middleweight.’

MVP looks like he is chasing a finish and puts out more offence than usual. It’s not his natural game and he’s punished with a well timed early takedown. Cannonier has a huge chance to win the fight from being behind on the cards and goes for a kimura then arm triangle submission without coming close to either. He then switches to ground and pound but only lands enough to secure a 10-9 round, which in all likelihood won’t be enough for him.

10 minutes down and the second half of those were closer. Cannonier recognises that his success is coming when he is able to clinch up with MVP and even briefly takes him down, though isn’t able to keep him there. MVP still takes the round in my book with a rapid combination putting his opponent down again. He’s had the standout moments in the fight so far and Cannonier has five more minutes to solve a puzzle he wouldn’t have seen before.

This guy is just brilliant entertainment. MVP slides in and away, taunting Cannonier to commit before dancing in and landing seemingly at will in a point fighting style. But his moment of the round is a massive power shot landing on the neck to put Cannonier on his back. Sensibly, the American then ties him up on the fence towards the end of the round without doing much damage.

MVP is back in action after beating the fearsome Sharaputdin Magomedov in February. He fancies his chances at middleweight and now faces the power of Cannonier tonight. Everyone knows how the Londoner will fight, with his incredible kickboxing style but that doesn’t make it any easier to combat. Page is in and out of range like lightening so it will be a tough ask for the American to get his hands on the Brit.

‘If your only thing is trying to knock me out by hitting me in the head, you’re going to have a long night, I have a strong chin. Even when I lose I do something I love and I think I get a new contract now!’

Wow! What a comeback win that is for the veteran. Elliott times a perfect takedown and Asakura accepts full guard with 1:20 to go in the second. Elliott then wriggles into a guillotine position on top, pushing his own bodyweight into it and forcing the Japanese man to tap out. That was sensational from the underdog and his best win in recent years.

Four minutes of an absolute clinic in the opener for Asakura. The favourite stalks Elliott like prey and lands flurries of clean shots on multiple occasions. The American makes a show of evasion skills and slicking back his hair to try and show he wasn’t affected before landing a takedown in the last minute having caught a kick, too little, too late in my viewing and the first round belongs to Asakura.

USA vs Japan is the curtain-raiser on the main card tonight and you know the matchmakers on stick what they think will be a barnburner on first. Elliott is a fan favourite, vastly experienced and had 13 fights in the UFC now, while his opponent tonight is coming off a defeat last December to the champion Alexandre Pantoja.

We have five great match-ups on the business end of UFC 319 tonight and a reassuring number of finishes on the pre-lims have got the atmosphere bubbling nicely for the crowd in Chicago.

British interest with MVP and Lerone Murphy adds another dimension for fans from the UK, even if the man from Manchester is arriving in the co-main event as an underdog against highly-rated debutant Aaron Pico.

Of course, Chimaev vs Du Plessis is the one everyone is here for – can ‘Borz’ back up the bookies by finishing the seemingly indistructable champion or will he – having come in two pounds underweight – have bitten off more than he can chew?

Not many soft blokes from Chechnya are there? Well, Baysangur Susurkaev is among the hardest and he has a few skills in his locker. He submits Nolan in the second round of their featured pre-lim fight after flattening him out on the ground. Nolan picked his poison after posturing up but it didn’t last long after that.

Locked in and ready to go, Du Plessis is in the building and enters the arena with his wife Imari Visser. Plenty of fighters have run scared from Chimaev but not the champion – who has faced the best of the best and come out with his hand raised. Can he do it against a wrestling phenomenon? It would go some way to enhancing his growing legacy if he gets the job done tonight.

Oleksiejcczuk just finished his fight in less time than it takes me to write his surname. Superb performance from the Polish star, who makes it back-to-back wins having lost three on the bounce before that. Nice momentum picking up for the ‘Fighting Nerds’ team member.

MVP is back in action tonight on the main card in a huge fight against Jared Cannonier. Daily Mail Sport spoke to the brilliant British striker about his clash and all things UFC 319…

Superb win for Loopy Godinez over three rounds and she marches on, saying: ‘I knew it would be a super hard fight – today I woke up and thought “let’s live a little bit tonight”. Honestly, UFC knows I never call anyone out, I am here and will be ready for whoever they give me next.’

Chimaev has been almost a picture of perfection – some scary moments against Kamaru Usman aside – since he entered the UFC and in most of his fights made the opponent look almost amateurish.

Du Plessis hasn’t quite had the same kind of aura but just finds a way to consistently break down the best fighters in the world even if it doesn’t look clean and tidy. One of these men will lose for the first time in their UFC careers tonight.

The UFC is back in Chicago for the eighth time and first since 2019 at UFC 238. The first event in the Windy City was hosted in 2012 when Rashad Evans beat Phil Davies and Robert Whittaker’s famous rematch with Joel Romero was probably the organisation’s best remembered event from the city.

Right at the end of the first round of the first pre-lim, the heavy favourite Chase Hooper is rocked by a massive right hand and can’t recover in time to hear the bell. Big win for Hernandez to subdue a crowd that was heavily behind his opponent.

Chase Hooper vs Alexander Hernandez

Jessica Andrade vs Loopy Godinez

Gerald Meerschaert vs Michał Oleksiejczuk

Baisangur Susurkaev vs Eric Nolan

Tim Elliott vs Kai Asakura

Jared Cannonier vs Michael Page

Geoff Neal vs Carlos Prates

Lerone Murphy vs Aaron Pico

Dricus du Plessis vs Khamzat Chimaev

The pre-lims in Chicago are up next but there have been a handful of early fights for those keen enough to rock up to United Center from the very first bell, results here:

Joseph Morales def. Alibi Idiris via submission – R2

Karine Silva def. Dione Barbosa via decision

Drakkar Klose def. Edson Barboza via decision – R3

Good morning, afternoon, evening whatever time it is where you are – I hope it is far more sociable than the usual 1am knockings here! At least there’s some brilliant fights to dig into tonight, capped off by the big one with the UFC’s ultimate boogie man Khamzat Chimaev testing himself against the best of the best Dricus du Plessis.

Keep it here for all the build-up, pre-lims and up to the minute live info on a night that should have buckets of drama in store.