A heavyweight scrap between Justin Tafa and Marcos Rogerio de Lima has been announced for UFC 298 on Saturday, February 17th of next year in Los Angeles.
The 29-year-old Tafa is unbeaten in his past four UFC fights, starting with 1st round KO finishes over both Harry Hunsucker and Parker Porter.
Tafa then suffered a fight-ending eye-poke injury just 29 seconds into his fight with Austen Lane back in June that led to a no-contest, but he’s since settled that score by KO’ing Lane 82 seconds into their rematch a few months later.
Now Tafa will look to continue his push towards a spot on the heavyweight rankings as he goes up against the 15th ranked de Lima, who is coming off a 33 second TKO loss to ‘The Black Beast’ Derrick Lewis back in July.
Prior to that the 38-year-old de Lima had earned back-to-back wins over Andrei Arlovski and Waldo Cortes-Acosta, leaving his overall UFC record at 10-7 heading into his next fight.
Tafa vs. de Lima joins a UFC 298 card that will be headlined by a featherweight title showdown between current champion Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria, but no other high-profile fights have yet been attached to the pay-per-view show in Los Angeles, California.
