UFC Auckland: Tim Elliott gets call up against Nguyen

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