Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort won’t happen on Dec. 6 after all, but that won’t change Ronaldo Souza’s plans.
“Jacare”, who scored his fourth straight victory under the UFC banner with a third-round submission over Gegard Mousasi in September, will still work to be the ‘plan B’ in case something happens to Belfort before his title fight against Weidman in February.
“I haven’t talked to Jacare about it yet, but my position, as his manager, is that we will wait until February,” Souza’s manager Gilberto Faria told MMAFighting.com. “That’s good because Jacare will have more time to recover, take some time off with his family before he returns to war.
“Our plan hasn’t changed much,” he continued. “We will be ready to replace Belfort, in case something happens to him, and fight Weidman. If Vitor fights (Weidman in February), we will get another fight quickly and be ready to fight the champion, whoever wins between Weidman and Vitor, in four or six months.”
Weidman was forced out of a planned UFC 181 main event against Belfort with a broken hand, and welterweight champion Johny Hendricks now headlines the fight card against Robbie Lawler. Anthony Pettis meets Gilbert Melendez for the lightweight championship in the co-main event in Las Vegas.