Onetime UFC title challenger Ali Bagautinov (16-6) returns to action on March 2 when he faces Northern Ireland’s Andy Young (11-9).
The two meet in the co-main event of Fight Nights Global 84, which takes place at Hant Arena in Bratislava, Slovakia.
The night’s headliner sees Fight Nights Global bantamweight champion Tomas Deak (17-9-1) face Russian challenger Sharamazan Shupanov (4-1-1).
Bagautinov is currently sits at No. 12 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA flyweight rankings. “Puncher” fought seven times under the UFC banner, including a failed bid for the flyweight title but was released from the promotion following a November 2016 loss to Kyoji Horiguchi. Bagautinov stumbled in his first post-octagon outing, suffering a knockout loss to Tyson Nam but has since bounced back with back-to-back wins over Pedro Nobre and Danny Martinez.
“Taz” Young is looking to rebound from a November 2017 majority-decision loss to Daniel Barez at BAMMA 32. Prior to that setback, Young stood at 5-1 in his previous six outings.
Fight Nights Global 84 also features a heavyweight contest between five-time UFC vet Viktor Pesta (12-4) and Russia’s Alexander Gladkov (9-1).
The complete Fight Nights Global 84 lineup includes:
- Champ Tomas Deak vs. Sharamazan Shupanov – for bantamweight title
- Ali Bagautinov vs. Andy Young
- Alexander Gladkov vs. Viktor Pesta
- Samuel Kristofic vs. Nodar Kudukhashvili
- Shamil Amirov vs. Yasubey Enomoto
- Filip Tomczak vs. Jozef Wittner
- Marek Mazuch vs. Abdoul Soulake
- Dritan Barjamaj vs. Yevgeny Orlov
- Maxim Butorin vs. Vitaliy Stoyan
