The wait is over for [autotag]Jamall Emmers[/autotag].
A highly-touted competitor on the regional scene, Emmers (17-4 MMA, 0-0 UFC) took a long, hard road to the UFC – but he made it. Emmers will replace [autotag]Douglas Silva de Andrade[/autotag] at UFC 248, where he will square off against undefeated [autotag]Movsar Evloev[/autotag] (12-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC).
MMA Junkie confirmed the news with a person with knowledge of the situation on Wednesday. The person asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement. MMA writer Shawn Bitter was the first to report the news. Emmers confirmed his signing in an Instagram post Wednesday.
UFC 248 takes place March 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.
Emmers, 30, competed for over a dozen regional promotions en route to the UFC. In 2016, Emmers appeared on an episode of “Dana White: Lookin’ for a Fight” and impressed the UFC president despite putting forth a losing effort.
In 2018, Emmers had another major opportunity when he competed on the sophomore season of “Dana White’s Contender Series.” A heavy favorite, Emmers was upset by UFC veteran Julian Erosa.
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That defeat sent Emmers back to the regional scene and, over the span of his next four fights, he finished all four of his opponents, including UFC veteran Jay Cucciniello.
As for Evloev (12-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC), the former M-1 champion is unblemished in his UFC tenure to date. In his promotional debut in April 2019, Evloev defeated Seung Woo Choi by unanimous decision. His follow-up outing went the same way, only this time Evloev defeated Enrique Barzola on all three judges’ scorecards.
With the switch, the latest UFC 248 lineup includes:
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
- Champ Israel Adesanya vs. Yoel Romero – for middleweight title
- Champ Zhang Weili vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk – for strawweight title
- Li Jingliang vs. Neil Magny
- Sean O’Malley vs. Jose Quinonez
- Derek Brunson vs. Edmen Shahbazyan
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN/ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET)
- Danaa Batgerel vs. Guido Cannetti
- Gerald Meerschaert vs. Deron Winn
- Polyana Viana vs. Emily Whitmire
- Jamall Emmers vs. Movsar Evloev
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN/ESPN+, 6:15 p.m. ET)
- Saparbek Safarov vs. Rodolfo Vieira
- Austin Hubbard vs. Mark Madsen
- Beneil Dariush vs. Drakkar Klose
- Max Griffin vs. Alex Oliveira