The Ultimate Fighting Championship is continuing to build on the first event of the year with UFC 246, adding a significant flyweight matchup the card.
According to his Instagram on Friday, Askar Askarov (10-0-1) will be facing Tim Elliott (15-9-1) at flyweight at UFC 246. The event will be held on Jan. 18 in Las Vegas, presumably at the T-Mobile Arena.
Elliott is ranked in the #8 spot on the UFC’s official rankings, while he is currently unranked at flyweight on the Sherdog.com rankings. The former 125-pound title challenger and “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 24 winner has alternated wins and losses since making his return to the promotion in 2016. While he defeated Louis Smolka on the scorecards and became the first fighter to ever stop Mark De La Rosa in 2017, he has suffered first-round submission defeats to Ben Nguyen and Deiveson Figueiredo.
Askarov made his organizational debut in surprising fashion, fighting to a split draw with Brandon Moreno at UFC Fight Night 159 in September. It was the first time the Dagestani fighter had ever gone the distance, with “Bullet” finishing all of his previous ten opponents before the final bell. Although Moreno was making his return to the Octagon, Askarov was making his debut, and the draw placed Moreno at #5 while Askarov is at #12 in the division — and on the bubble with Sherdog.com. The former Absolute Championship Akhmat flyweight king went a perfect 7-0 with the Russian promotion before coming over to the UFC, even hitting a rare twister on Bellator MMA veteran Anthony Leone in 2017.
UFC 246 will take place on Jan. 18 at a to-be-determined venue in Las Vegas, where it will be headlined by a welterweight war between Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone. Additionally, former lightweight king Anthony Pettis will drop back down to 155 pounds to take on the surging Diego Ferreira.