Earlier this morning it was reported that Joseph Benavidez was out of his June match-up with Ben Nguyen due to an undisclosed injury.
Subsequently MMA Junkie has confirmed that Tim Elliott will be Nguyen’s new opponent with the former title-challenger stepping up to the plate in what should be an exciting bout set to take place at Auckland’s Vector Arena.
Elliott (14-7-1) took out the TUF 24 Champions series in 2016 and went the distance in a hard fought battle with reigning champion Demetrious Johnson back in December. Since then he’s managed to rack up a victory against Louis Smolka who previously defeated Nguyen in July last year via second round TKO.
Given Elliott’s efforts against Johnson, and being ranked in the top 10, a win for Nguyen in this instance is still very much a platform for title contendership in the future despite no longer facing the number one ranked Benavidez.
UFC Fight Night 110 is headlined by a heavyweight collision between Mark Hunt and Derrick Lewis.
Fight Card announced to date:
- Mark Hunt v Derrick Lewis — heavyweight bout
- Dan Kelley v Derek Brunson — middleweight bout
- Ben Nguyen v Tim Elliott— flyweight bout
- Ashkan Mokhtarian v John Moraga — flyweight bout
- Dan Hooker v Ross Pearson — lightweight bout
- Damien Brown v Vinc Pichel — lightweight bout
- Alex Volkanovski v Mizuto Hirota — featherweight bout
- Warlley Alves v Kiichi Kunimoto – welterweight bout
- Luke Jumeau v Dominique Steele – welterweight bout
