Martin Buday vs. Shamil Gaziev being finalized for UFC 296 in Las Vegas

Heavyweights are headed to UFC 296 in Las Vegas.

Martin Buday, who recently cracked the promotion’s rankings, will welcome newcomer Shamil Gaziev to the UFC on Dec. 16 at T-Mobile Arena.

Two people with knowledge of the matchup informed MMA Junkie of the targeted booking but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement. Agreements are in place.

Buday (13-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) has quietly risen through the UFC ranks with wins over Chris Barnett, Lukasz Brzeski, Jake Collier, and Josh Parisian thus far. He most recently competed in August when he picked up his first finish inside the UFC, a first-round Kimura of Parisian.

Gaziev (11-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) was a standout on the most recent season of Dana White’s Contender Series. He submitted CFFC heavyweight champion Greg Velasco in Round 1 to earn his UFC deal. The finish was the 10th of his professional career. Prior to DWCS, Gaziev contended for Brave CF.

With the addition, the UFC 296 lineup includes:

• Champion Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington – for welterweight title
• Champion Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval – for flyweight title
• Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson
• Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett
• Ian Machado Garry vs. Vicente Luque
• Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa
• Cody Gabrandt vs. Brian Kelleher
• Ariane Lipski vs. Casey O’Neill
• Cody Durden vs. Tagir Ulanbekov
• Randy Brown vs. Muslim Salikhov
• Dustin Jacoby vs. Alonzo Menifield

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 296.