After Menga cancellation, Tim Elliott says he's fighting newcomer Mark De La Rosa at UFC 219

Tim Elliott had his fight at UFC on FOX 26 yanked out from under him this past weekend when Pietro Menga didn’t weigh in and Elliott wouldn’t accept a fight at a higher weight.

But it looks like he’ll get a quick turnaround to salvage his 2017 calendar year. Elliott (14-8-1 MMA, 3-6 UFC) said on Twitter that he’s fighting promotional newcomer Mark De La Rosa (9-0, 0-0 UFC) at UFC 219 next week following multiple online reports.

Elliott tweeted at Jarred Brooks and criticized him for apparently turning down a chance to fight him at the event, and De La Rosa was fine picking up the opportunity.

UFC officials have not yet formalized the booking, and it is not known precisely where on the card the bout would fall in a lineup that recently appeare to be finalized.

UFC 219 takes place Dec. 30 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas with a pay-per-view main card following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

De La Rosa is married to Montana De La Rosa (8-4 MMA, 1-0), who fought on Season 26 of “The Ultimate Fighter” and earlier this month picked up a submission win over Christina Marks at the TUF 26 Finale. Mark De La Rosa’s move to the UFC will make them the first husband-wife combo in the UFC at the same time.

Elliott took some heat at UFC on FOX 26 when he didn’t accept a catchweight fight with Menga (13-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) when Menga was going to come in about five pounds overweight. The criticism came when Elliott lobbied to get both his show and win money for the fight, even though he could’ve stayed on the card and gotten 20 percent of Menga’s purse, to boot.

But Elliott said it didn’t make sense for him to continue to “bend over backwards” in his career to fight an unreliable opponent, and at a potential weight disadvantage.

Now he gets De La Rosa, who comes into his UFC debut unbeaten at 9-0. He has six stoppage wins in his nine fights, including back-to-back submissions this year under the Combate Americas banner. His resume also includes a win for Legacy FC nearly three years ago.

Elliott will be trying to get back in the win column after a 49-second submission loss to Ben Nguyen in June in New Zealand. Before that, he had a “Fight of the Night” decision win over Louis Smolka at UFC on FOX 24 in Kansas City to get back on track after losing a title fight to flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson a year ago.

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

• Champ Cris Cyborg vs. Holly Holm – for women’s featherweight title
• Edson Barboza vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov
• John Lineker vs. Jimmie Rivera
• Cynthia Calvillo vs. Carla Esparza
• Carlos Condit vs. Neil Magny

PRELIMINARY CARD (FS1, 8 p.m. ET)

• Michal Oleksiejczuk vs. Khalil Rountree
• Marc Diakiese vs. Dan Hooker
• Rick Glenn vs. Myles Jury
• Matheus Nicolau vs. Louis Smolka

PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 7 p.m. ET)

• Omari Akhmedov vs. Marvin Vettori
• Mark Delarosa vs. Tim Elliott*

* Not officially announced

For more on UFC 218, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.