The Brazil card scheduled for May 14 could now feature a heavyweight title fight between Fabricio Werdum and Stipe Miocic, which would bump the former main event, Vitor Belfort vs. Ronaldo Jacare, to the co-main event of the evening.
In an unexpected turn of events, UFC Fight Night 87 has become UFC 198 and could host a title fight between heavyweights Fabricio Werdum and Stipe Miocic, which would bump down former headliners Vitor Belfort and Ronaldo Jacare to co-main event status, according to a report from Combate.
Miocic tried to fill in for an injured Cain Velasquez two weeks shy of his rematch against Fabricio Werdum at the former UFC 196 card, but now will potentially get a chance to fight the champion with a full camp since Velasquez needed surgery and will be away for at least five weeks.
There is still no confirmation about the title fight, nor a city to host the card, although it has been reported the choice will be between Curitiba, Fortaleza or Brasilia, the country’s capital. Curitiba, the hometown of Anderson Silva, Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio Rua and the original Chute Boxe gym, has never hosted a UFC event before.
Fortaleza has hosted the TUF Brazil 2 Finale card back in 2013, while Brasilia had UFC Fight Night 51, which was headlined by Antonio Bigfoot and Andrei Arlovski, in 2014.
The card is expected to go down on May 14 and also features Demian Maia vs. Matt Brown, Leonardo Santos vs. Evan Dunham and Nate Marquardt vs. Thiago Santos, so far.
Werdum had been expected to defend his title against former champ Cain Velasquez this coming Saturday at what was to have been UFC 196. After Cain pulled out with an injury, Werdum refused to fight Stipe Miocic on short notice due to an injury of his own. That card is now UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs Thompson and will air on Fox Sports 1 in the USA.