Ali Bagautinov meets John Lineker in flyweight fight at UFC 169
With the UFC’s flyweight title freshly defended by Demetrious Johnson this past Saturday, the search has started for the next contender.
It’s possible Johnson’s next challenger could come out of a meeting between Ali Bagautinov (12-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC) and John Lineker (23-6 MMA, 4-1 UFC), who will meet at UFC 169 in February. UFC officials made the fight official on Wednesday night on “UFC Tonight†on FOX Sports 1.
UFC 169 takes place on Feb. 1 at Prudential Center at Newark, N.J. The evening’s main card airs on pay-per-view while prelims are expected to air on FOX Sports 1. A pair of title fights headlines the Super Bowl Saturday card as bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz returns to meet interim champ Renan Barao in a title unification bout, and featherweight champ Jose Aldo defends against Ricardo Lamas.
Bagautinov has won 10 straight fights, including both his fights since signing with the UFC earlier this year. In September, he debuted with the promotion and stopped Marcos Vinicius at UFC Fight Night 28 in Brazil. He followed that up a little more than two months later by outpointing Tim Elliott at UFC 167 in Las Vegas. Those two UFC fights were the combat samba champ’s first outside of his home country of Russia.
The 23-year-old Lineker has won four straight fights since dropping his UFC debut to Louis Gaudinot in May 2012. Three of those fights have been by TKO against Azamat Gashimov, Jose Maria and Phil Harris, the latter coming in October in England. The problem for Lineker has been making weight at 125 pounds. In his most recent two fights, the Brazilian has missed weight – as he did in his UFC debut, as well.
Lineker is ranked No. 7, with Bagautinov right behind him at No. 8, in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA flyweight rankings.
With the additions to the card, UFC 169 now includes:
Champ Dominick Cruz vs. interim champ Renan Barao – bantamweight title unification bout
Champ Jose Aldo vs. Ricardo Lamas – for featherweight title
Frank Mir vs. Alistair Overeem
Chris Cariaso vs. Kyoji Horiguchi
Nick Catone vs. Tom Watson
John Makdessi vs. Alan Patrick
Al Iaquinta vs. Kevin Lee
Neil Magny vs. Gasan Umalatov
Rashid Magomedov vs. Tony Martin
Ali Bagautinov vs. John Lineker
