Referees, judges assigned for UFC 290 title fights
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The referees and judges overseeing the UFC 290 title fights have now been assigned as Alexander Volkanovski battles Yair Rodriguez in a featherweight title unification bout while Brandon Moreno defends his flyweight belt against Alexandre Pantoja.
The assignments were approved by the Nevada Athletic Commission on Tuesday.
Herb Dean was selected as the referee to handle the UFC 290 main event where Volkanovski faces off with Rodriguez. The judges for the bout will be Mike Bell, Ron McCarthy and Sal D'Amato.
In the co-main event, Jason Herzog will serve as the third man in the octagon for the fight between Moreno and Pantoja. The judges for that matchup will be Ben Cartlidge, Junichiro Kamijo and Derek Cleary.
UFC 290 will serve as the culmination of the latest International Fight week, which is always a marquee card for the promotion.
Volkanovski will be returning to 145 pounds after coming up short in his bid to win the lightweight title in his last outing against Islam Makhachev. As for Rodriguez, he claimed the UFC interim featherweight title with a win over Josh Emmett in February.
Meanwhile, Moreno will be seeking vengeance after past losses to Pantoja after competing against him on The Ultimate Fighter and a bout in the UFC back in 2018. Pantoja will seek to become a UFC champion for the first time after putting together an impressive three-fight win streak including victories over Manel Kape, Brandon Royval and Alex Perez.
The card will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on July 8.
Referees, judges assigned for UFC 290 title fights originally appeared on NBC Sports
