Tim Elliott taps out former champion at UFC 319 in first fight in over 600 days

Welcome back to the UFC, Tim Elliott.

It’s been a long time coming for the former UFC title challenger and ‘The Ultimate Fighter 24 winner’, who got his hand raised in the Octagon for the first time in over 600 days at UFC 319 in Chicago.

We last saw Tim Elliott in Dec. 2023 when he submitted Sumudaerji in the opening round.

The 38-year-old Elliott returned against former RIZIN Bantamweight Champion Kai Asakura on the pay-per-view main card on Saturday night.

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Photo by Ed Mulholland/Zuffa LLCTim Elliott submitted Kai Asakura with a guillotine choke at UFC 319Ring rust didn’t seem affect Elliott, who’s one of the most unorthodox fighters on the roster.

After a competitive first round, the UFC veteran got Asakura onto the ground and went for a guillotine choke.

Within seconds, Asakura was forced to tap out and Elliott picked up his first win since 2023.

The highly-touted Asakura falls to 0-2 in the UFC since he crossed over from RIZIN.

Demetrious Johnson picked Kai Asakura to beat Tim ElliottThe greatest UFC flyweight champion of all time Demetrious Johnson was wrong in his prediction.

Johnson never shared the cage with Asakura, but he did defend the title against Elliott in 2016, in the finale of ‘The Ultimate Fighter 24’.

Johnson admitted Elliott gave him some problems, as he had very slick jiu-jitsu and was hard to read on the feet. Johnson defeated Elliott via unanimous decision after five rounds of action.

Johnson picked Asakura to defeat Elliott on his YouTube channel earlier this week.