A familiar face will be the third man in the cage for UFC 298‘s main event.
Veteran referee Jason Herzog has been selected to oversee the featherweight title bout between UFC champion Alexander Volkanovski and undefeated challenger Ilia Topuria.
The three judges scoring the contest are also familiar names: Ron McCarthy, Derek Cleary, and Sal D’Amato.
UFC 298 takes place Saturday, Feb. 17, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
The California State Athletic Commission provided the event’s judging and referee assignments to MMA Fighting on Thursday.
Volkanovski, 35, seeks to become the oldest champion in UFC history under 170 pounds to successfully defend his title when he meet Topuria, 27, in the night’s main event. In total, Volkanovski (26-3) has notched five defense of his belt and posted an unbeaten 11-0 run at featherweight in the promotion, but dropped two of his past three bouts to Islam Makhachev in failed attempts at capturing the UFC lightweight title. Topuria (14-0) has won all six of his UFC appearances and last dominated Josh Emmett in a June title eliminator.
Notably, referee Mike Beltran is set to oversee UFC 298’s co-headlining bout between former champion Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa, with the trio of Ron McCarthy, Eliot Kelly, and Michael Bell assigned to serve as judges for the middleweight matchup.
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