It looks like the UFC is hashing out what to do with the potential title challengers at the top of the middleweight division, with reports that Jacare is fighting Vitor Belfort.
Is Chris Weidman getting his wish for an immediate title rematch? Sure looks that way. With Yoel Romero’s recently reported potential drug test failure, the UFC was suddenly running pretty short on options for the next shot at the 185 lb title. The only other names in the hunt, Jacare and Vitor Belfort, and both had arguments against their contention.
For Belfort’s part, while he’s coming off a win over Dan Henderson in his last bout and only has one loss on his record since 2012, a 2015 win over Henderson just doesn’t mean what it used to. And considering that he’s only fought twice since 2013, it’d be really more accurate to say that he’s 1-1 in recent fights, with Chris Weidman still ahead of him in contention.
Jacare has been on a tear lately. He’s only got one loss since dropping a decision to the current champion, Luke Rockhold back in 2011. He rattled of 8 straight wins and seemed to be on his way to UFC title contention, but ran right into Yoel Romero (he of the aforementioned failed drug test). While that Romero fight was a contentious split decision loss, and likely to be overturned to a no-contest for Souza and likely to stand since Romero’s failure was out of competition, it’s not a strong argument for getting an immediate shot at the middleweight title off that fight.
And so, to potentially strengthen the case for one of these two Brazilians, the UFC has matched them up against one another. The news of the fight was made public via UFC press release, with the bout scheduled for May 14th, in a yet to be named city in Brazil. It should make for an action packed no. 1 contenders fight and it feels all but settled that we can expect Rockhold vs. Weidman 2 in the meantime.