Islam Makhachev, Merab Dvalishvili gain 20-plus pounds by UFC 311 fight night

What does it take to successfully defend the UFC lightweight and bantamweight titles?

At least an extra 20 pounds.

Islam Makhachev weighed 178 pounds the night of his UFC 311 victory Saturday — one day after registering at 154.5 pounds — when he submitted Renato Moicano in the first round, according to data obtained by The Post from the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC).

Merab Dvalishvili, the champ at 135 pounds who cleared the bar with room to spare at 134 on Friday, was 156.8 pounds for his decision victory over Umar Nurmagomedov at Intuit Dome in Inglewood.

If that sounds like an unfair edge, note that Moicano outweighed Makhachev at 181.8 pounds and Nurmagomedov was identical to Dvalishvili at 156.8.

Weight cutting is an intrinsic element of modern MMA — for better or worse — with more extreme cuts increasingly more common at lightweight and below, both for men and women.

Each of the four men in the main and co-main events stepped into the octagon carrying at least 15 percent more mass than he did roughly 36 hours earlier, with Moicano and Dvalishvili eclipsing 17 percent.

Of the 26 competitors on the card, 11 added at least 13 percent more mass, topped out by flyweight Tagir Ulanbekov jumping from 125.5 pounds to 147.4 (17.45 percent larger) for his decision victory over Clayton Carpenter.

Ulanbekov’s fight-night weight is the largest by a UFC flyweight who made weight since CSAC began recording such data in 2018.

Seven of the 13 bouts at UFC 311, including both championship fights, went off between fighters who were within 4 pounds of one another on fight night — including four in which each fighter had increased their mass by more than 12 percent between weigh-in and the bout.

Reinier de Ridder, a first-round submission winner over Kevin Holland to open the pay-per-view portion of the event, got the victory while possessing a 21.6-pound edge, the largest size gap of the event.

Holland, who has floated between welterweight and middleweight, was originally 183.5 pounds for their 185-pound clash before a relatively small increase to 190, and he was still dwarfed by the 212-pound de Ridder on Saturday.

De Ridder actually weighed more than Jiri Prochazka, the former lightweight champion who defeated fellow ex-champ Jamahal Hill in their 205-pound showdown.

Prochazka, who had toyed with a move down to middleweight, who tipped the scale at 208.2 pounds when he knocked out Hill — who had swelled to 221.8 by the time he reached the cage.

Clearly, the 13.6-pound deficit did not keep Prochazka’s hand from being raised after their thrilling, back-and-forth slugfest.