Bryce Mitchell has agreed to step in on less than two weeks notice to fight Josh Emmett at UFC 296 on December 16th after Giga Chikadze had to bow out of the event due to suffering a groin injury in training.
The 29-year-old Mitchell comes in off a unanimous decision victory against Dan Ige back in September.
That got Mitchell back to winning ways after being submitted by Ilia Topuria a year ago. That still stands as the only loss of Mitchell’s 16-1 career, having won all six of his other fights in the UFC prior to that, beating the likes of Edson Barboza and Andre Fili along the way.
As for the 38-year-old Emmett, he’s hoping to end the year on a better note after having lost twice in his 2023 campaign so far.
It began with an interim title loss to Yair Rodriguez by TKO back in February, while a few months later he lost on the scorecards to Ilia Topuria.
Emett had won five-in-a-row before that though, beating the likes of Calvin Kattar, Dan Ige and Shane Burgos.
Emmett vs. Mitchell is expected to be the featured prelim on the final UFC event of the year, with the pay-per-view portion of the card being headlined by a welterweight title fight between Leon Edwards and Colby Covington.
