Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. For the first time since 2019, promising Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight
prospect Damir
Ismagulov will step into the cage. On Thursday,
AG Fight reported that Ismagulov (19-1) will be returning to
the Octagon on May 15. The Russian lightweight will be competing at
UFC 262 at the Toyota Center in Houston, where he will take on
debutant Rafael
Alves (19-9). This 155-pound pairing has since been confirmed
by Ismagulov on his Instagram.
Ismagulov has not suffered a defeat since 2015, where he dropped a
decision to Ramazan
Esenbaev. Since then, he has rattled off 14 victories,
including three inside the UFC cage. He has yet to finish an
opponent in his UFC run, with a trio of unanimous verdicts against
Alex
Gorgees, Joel
Alvarez and Thiago
Moises in the span of about nine months. Before his signing in
2018, Ismagulov lorded over the M-1 Global lightweight category with a title-clinching
victory over Maxim
Divnich followed by subsequent defenses against Raul
Tutarauli and Artem
Damkovsky.
Brazil’s Alves found his way to the UFC off of the fourth season of
Dana White’s Contender Series, tapping out
Alejandro
Flores in the second round to secure a contract. “The Turn” was
initially slated to make his debut against Pat
Sabatini in February, but he missed weight so badly – 11.5
pounds over the featherweight cap – that he was pulled from the
matchup and forced to move up a weight class. The MMA Masters
representative will have a second chance to make a first
impression, as he celebrates a finish rate of 74 percent with
stoppages in each of his last three victories.
UFC 262 will go off with a bang on May 15 inside the Toyota Center
in Houston, with the arena allowing for 100-percent capacity in
what should be a packed house in the midst of the coronavirus
pandemic. Topping this pay-per-view card will be a vacant
lightweight championship clash between Charles
Oliveira and Michael
Chandler, while a co-headlining lightweight thriller comes
between Tony
Ferguson and Beneil
Dariush.
