Official!
Birmingham's Tom Breese is going to kick off 2021 against Omari Akhmedov on Jan 16! pic.twitter.com/P4iIgedkIK— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) December 7, 2020
Omari Akhmedov will lock horns with Tom Breese in a middleweight bout at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on Jan. 16.
The Las Vegas-based promotion announced the booking via social media on Monday. A location for the event has not been formally announced but it is expected to take place at the Flash Forum on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The card is headlined by a featherweight scrap pitting Max Holloway against Calvin Kattar.
Akhmedov, 33, had a six-bout unbeaten streak snapped in his last outing, when he dropped a unanimous decision to Chris Weidman at UFC Fight Night 174 on Aug. 8. The Dagestani known as “Wolverine” is 8-4-1 during his promotional tenure and 20-5-1 as a professional overall.
Breese, meanwhile, has alternated wins and losses in his last four Octagon appearances. Most recently, th 29-year-old Birmingham England native scored a first-round TKO of K.B. Bhullar at UFC Fight Night 179 on Oct. 10. Breese began his UFC career at welterweight, going 3-1 before moving up to 185 pounds.