UFC 296 has added several new fights to the year-end pay-per-view on Dec. 16 with Giga Chikadze vs. Josh Emmett and Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa joining the lineup at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
UFC officials announced the matchups on Wednesday.
Following a 19-month hiatus from the sport, Chikadze returned to action back in August when he picked up an impressive unanimous decision win over Alex Caceres. The victory put Chikadze back on track after he suffered the first loss of his UFC career to Calvin Kattar back in January 2022.
Overall, Chikadze sports an 8-1 record in the UFC including victories over Edson Barboza and Cub Swanson as well.
As for Emmett, he’ll make his first appearance since dropping back-to-back fights to Yair Rodriguez and Ilia Topuria. Prior to those losses, Emmett had rattled off five straight wins, which earned him a shot at the interim UFC featherweight title.
Now Emmett looks to right the ship while facing a dangerous striker in Chikadze when they meet in December.
Meanwhile, Aldana will also make his return to action after suffering a loss to now former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes in June. That decision loss dropped Aldana’s record to 4-2 over her past six fights but she’ll look to jump right back into the deep end of the division where nobody currently holds the title after Nunes announced her retirement.
The fight will serve as the biggest test for Rosa’s career as she looks to build on her recent win over Yana Santos in July. Rosa holds a 6-2 record in the UFC with her only losses coming to Norma Dumont and Sara McMann.
While the card isn’t finalized just yet, here are the matchups announced for UFC 296 in December
UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington
MAIN EVENT: Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington
CO-MAIN EVENT: Alexander Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval
Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson
Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett
Vicente Luque vs. Ian Machado Garry
Josh Emmett vs. Giga Chikadze
Alonzo Menifield vs. Dustin Jacoby
Cody Garbrandt vs. Brian Kelleher
Martin Buday vs. Shamil Gaziev
Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa
Randy Brown vs. Muslim Salikhov