Antonio Carlos Junior vs. Brad Tavares added to UFC 257 on Jan. 23

Skidding middleweights will look to get back to winning ways.

Antonio Carlos Junior (10-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) will face Brad Tavares (17-6 MMA, 12-6 UFC) on Jan. 23. The event does not yet have a name designation or location, but is expected to be UFC 257 headlined by a potential Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier rematch.

Junior was initially scheduled to face Tavares at UFC on ESPN+ 28 in March, but Tavares pulled out due to a knee injury and was replaced by Makhmud Muradov. But after Junior also suffered a torn ACL, the bout was scrapped from the card.

In an April interview with MMA Junkie, Junior said he’d like the matchup with Tavares to be rebooked and he will get his wish when the two square off in the UFC’s first pay-per-view event of 2021.

After winning four straight, Tavares has dropped two in a row to current UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and most recently a stoppage loss to Edmen Shahbazyan last November at UFC 244.

With the addition, the current Jan. 23 lineup includes:

• Joanne Calderwood vs. Jessica Eye
• Antonio Carlos Junior vs. Brad Tavares