A matchup of ranked featherweights, [autotag]Giga Chikadze[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Josh Emmett[/autotag] is the latest edition to UFC 296, the final pay-per-view of the year.
The UFC announced on Wednesday that Chikadze (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) will take on Emmett (18-4 MMA, 9-4 UFC) in a 145-pound bout at the Dec. 16 event from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims expected on ESPN and ESPN+.
Chikadze, 35, started his UFC career with seven straight wins, only to have his momentum derailed with a definitive loss to Calvin Kattar in January 2022. That defeat set up an 18-month layoff, which only ended in late August when Chikadze returned to defeat Alex Caceres by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 225.
Emmett, 38, will try to get the his results back on track and begin a late-career run after dropping consecutive fights. Up until February of this year, Emmett was riding a five-fight winning streak. That gave him a chance to face Yair Rodriguez for the interim title at UFC 284, but he suffered a second-round submission loss. He returned in June, only to drop a bloody and lopsided decision to Ilia Topuria.
Chikadze enters the matchup at No. 13 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie featherweight rankings, and he will try to move up as No. 7-ranked Emmett tries to defend his spot.
Below is the updated UFC 296 lineup:
- Champ Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington – for welterweight title
- Champ Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval – for flyweight title
- Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson
- Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett
- Vicente Luque vs. Ian Machado Garry
- Giga Chikadze vs. Josh Emmett
- Dustin Jacoby vs. Alonzo Menifield
- Cody Garbrandt vs. Brian Kelleher
- Martin Buday vs. Shamil Gaziev
- Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa
- Randy Brown vs. Muslim Salikhov
- Cody Durden vs. Tagir Ulanbekov
- Ariane Lipski vs. Casey O’Neill
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 296.