A pair of five-round fights will headline the upcoming UFC Austin card, scheduled for the Moody Center in Austin, TX this December.
Getting main event billing will be a key lightweight match-up between Beneil Dariush (22-5-1) and Arman Tsarukyan (20-3), a fight pitting the #4 and #8-ranked 155’ers in the promotion against each other. Joining them, also booked for five rounds, is a second lightweight scrap, with Dan Hooker (23-12), ranked #9 in the weight class, taking on Bobby Green (31-14-1, 1NC), who sits at #12.
Promotion officials announced the bookings in a press release issued Tuesday, along with a number of other match-ups now confirmed for the event. UFC Austin is set to take place on Saturday, December 2, 2023 at the Moody Center in Austin, TX airing on ESPN and ESPN+ in the U.S.
The main event will see Dariush looking to bounce back from a loss to Charles Oliveira at UFC 289 in June. That setback marked Dariush’s first loss since 2018, and snapped an eight-fight win streak that included victories over Tony Ferguson, Mateusz Gamrot, and Drew Dober, among others.
Tsarukyan’s only two losses in the UFC have come against current champ Islam Makhachev, back in 2019, and Gamrot. He sits on a two-fight win streak.
Bobby Green has been on a star turn of late, winning his last two fights including a main event billing opposite Grant Dawson. “King” Green has earned a Performance of the Night bonus in each of those two wins, and has a post-fight bonus in five of his last eight fights.
To date, the following match-ups have been reported for UFC Austin on Dec. 2:
- Beneil Dariush vs. Arman Tsarukyan
- Dan Hooker vs. Bobby Green
- Sean Brady vs. Kelvin Gastelum
- Miesha Tate vs. Julia Avila
- Rob Font vs. Deiveson Figueiredo
- Khalil Rountree Jr. vs. Azamat Murzakanov
- Jamey-Lyn Horth vs. Veronica Hardy
- Punahele Soriano vs. Dustin Stoltzfus
- Clay Guida vs. Joaquim Silva
- Joe Solecki vs. Drakkar Klose
- Wellington Turman vs. Jared Gooden
- Steve Garcia vs. Melquizael Costa
- Cody Brundage vs. Zachary Reese
- Rodolfo Bellato vs. Ihor Potieria