Just days before UFC 199 was to be the premier MMA promotion’s first fight card in Inglewood, UFC President Dana White raved about the recently remodeled Forum and called it the nicest arena he’d ever toured.

Nearly nine years later, after Inglewood’s newest jewel, Intuit Dome, had hosted its first combat sports event, White was exuberant in his praise of the five-month-old facility that hosted UFC 311 on Saturday night.

“This is incredible. I’ve been saying this since we did the Sphere,” White said, alluding to the unique Las Vegas spectacle that was the site of UFC 306 in September. “This is where arenas are headed. More sports and entertainment. You know, the big LED screens, the seats light up, the steam, the smoke. That’s where this whole thing’s headed.”

As for the event itself Saturday, which was sold out with 18,370 in attendance, White was equally as ebullient in an exclusive interview with the Southern California News Group.

One day after the main event was shaken by the withdrawal of bantamweight title challenger Arman Tsarukyan due to injury, UFC 311 lost no traction in becoming the highest-grossing event in Intuit Dome’s young history and the most lucrative event the UFC has held in California.

“Couldn’t have gone better. $10.2 million gate budget. Was $7.5 when the fight fell out, we’re at $9.5 and we ended up going to $10.2 with a different main event. So, yeah, it could not have gone better,” White said after Saturday blew past the $7.26 million gate accrued by UFC 298 at Honda Center in March.

“Fights were awesome. So you can always have the bells and whistles and all the good (stuff), all the fights delivered. Tonight was really good.”

Less than two weeks before UFC 311, devastating fires broke out and tore through the Palisades and Altadena communities. While there was some buzz about the event being moved out of Southern California, White said that was “never” a consideration.

“No way, no way. This place would have had to catch fire” White said of Intuit Dome. “I didn’t want to do it. And lots of people were coming up to me, saying to me tonight, that are from L.A., ‘Thank you so much for bringing this here. We needed this and this is a big deal.’ It was very important.”

MAKHACHEV MOVES UP

With Tsarukyan out, lightweight champion Islam Makhachev was given a new opponent in Renato Moicano, who was elevated from main card to main event on one day’s notice. Makhachev needed just 4 minutes and 5 seconds to secure a D’arce choke and force Moicano to tap out.

With his 15th consecutive UFC victory, which is tied for second all time, and unprecedented fourth lightweight title defense, the Dagestani 155-pounder earned high praise from White, who had long viewed heavyweight champion and former light heavyweight icon Jon Jones as the best pound-for-pound fighter.

“There’s no doubt about it. He’s the pound-for-pound best in the world right now and he’s definitely the best to ever to do it in that division,” White said.

BONUSES

In the co-main event, Merab Dvalishvili and Umar Nurmagomedov won Fight of the Night bonuses after putting on what could go down as the best bantamweight championship fight in UFC history.

Nicknamed “The Machine” for good reason, an indefatigable Dvalishvili kept up the pace in the third round and showed no signs of slowing in the two ensuing championship rounds in retaining his title via unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 49-46).

Nurmagomedov, who said postfight that he believed he broke his hand in the opening round, came into the bout with an 18-0 record and never having lost a single round or been taken down in six UFC fights.

An undeterred Dvalishvili completed seven of 30 takedown attempts, and in doing so broke welterweight legend Georges St-Pierre’s UFC all-time record of 91 takedowns.

Performance of the Night bonuses went to Jirí Procházka, for his third-round TKO of fellow former light heavyweight champion Jamahl Hill, and Jailton Almeida for his first-round TKO of fellow top-10 heavyweight Serghei Spivac.

PITBULL AND PICO

Eyebrows arched when White, at his postfight press conference, was asked about former PFL fighters Patricio Pitbull and Aaron Pico.

Pitbull, a former two-division champion in Bellator, and Pico, the Whittier native and world-class wrestler who signed with Bellator when he was 17 and now trains in Albuquerque, New Mexico, could be significant additions for the UFC.

Pitbull, 37, recently received his unconditional release from PFL, which acquired Bellator and its roster last year and recently terminated it while absorbing its fighters.

PFL’s exclusive negotiating window with the 28-year-old Pico, winner of nine of his past 10 fights and viewed as one of the most enticing featherweights in the sport, ends soon.

Of Pitbull, White said: “I don’t know. ... I’ll talk to the boys about that, and we’ll see where we’re at.”

When asked about Pico, White indicated his matchmakers were much more keen on that prospect: “I definitely know the boys are interested in him. Yeah.”