A featherweight fight between Josh Emmett and Giga Chikadze has been announced for UFC 296 on 16th December in Las Vegas.
A five-fight winning streak saw the 38-year-old Emmett get an opportunity to fight for the vacant 145lb title against Yair Rodriguez last year, but he suffered a 2nd round submission loss that night.
Emmett has since also lost by unanimous decision to Ilia Topuria, marking the first time he’s suffered back-to-back losses in his 18-4 career, leaving him ranked No.6 heading into this fight.
Now he’ll take on the 8th ranked Chikadze, whose only loss in nine UFC fights so far came against Calvin Kattar on the scorecards early last year.
However, the 35-year-old has since bounced back with a decision win over Alex Caceres in August and now looks to end the year on a high note.
Emmett vs. Chikadze joins an end-of-year UFC 296 event that is shaping up to be one the most stacked of the year, with the headliner seeing welterweight champion Leon Edwards go up against Colby Covington, while flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja looks for his first title defense against Brandon Royval in the co-main event. Meanwhile, the main card on pay-per-view also includes Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett, Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson and Vicente Luque vs. Ian Garry.
