With today’s official announcement that Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen will now take place at UFC 148, instead of UFC 147 as originally planned, there is no bigger benefactor than featherweight contender Hatsu Hioki.
While Hioki is not directly affected, a replacement main event will be added. You see, along with the news that Silva/Sonnen has been postponed, Dana White stated that featherweight champion Jose Aldo will likely be added to the card.
Hioki has gone 2-0 inside the Octagon and is riding the momentum of a six-fight winning streak. Normally, he would be the natural choice to face Aldo, the champion of a division with few clear-cut contenders. However, there are two other dogs that have been in the chase.
Fellow contenders Dustin Poirier and Chan Sung Jung have each made a sizable impact within the division as of late, with the Korean Zombie knocking out Mark Hominick and Poirier riding his own five-fight streak. With all three men laying a legitimate claim to a title shot, Aldo’s opponent was still up in the air.
Poirier and Zombie are currently scheduled for a May 15th encounter at UFC on FUEL TV 3 in Fairfax, VA. The winner of the contest would potentially have the time to recuperate and challenge Aldo at his previously scheduled UFC 149 title defense.
Now that Aldo is being relocated to UFC 147, it does not appear that the Zuffa boys will have time to wait for a contender to emerge. Unless they plan to do some major shuffling to UFC on the FUEL event (which is unlikely), Hioki is the logical choice to step in and fight for a chance at glory.
Keep in mind that all of this is contingent on Frankie Edgar not dropping down to Featherweight.
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