Now that Johny Hendricks will be fighting Matt Brown at UFC 185 in March, just who gets the next crack at current champion Robbie Lawler’s title is back up in the air.
According to a report on UFC Tonight on Wednesday, the welterweight division’s next contender won’t be determined until both the Hendricks-Brown and Hector Lombard–Rory MacDonald fights play out. The former happens at UFC 185 on March 14 in Dallas, Texas, while the latter is tentatively slated for April 25 at UFC 186 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Should one of the winners shine brighter than the other, he will be awarded the next shot at the welterweight title.
For the last six weeks, it’s all been a little bit of a hot-potato proposition.
After Lawler won the 170-pound title at UFC 181 in his rematch with Hendricks in December, a trilogy fight between the two took precedence over MacDonald’s No. 1 contender status. Going in, MacDonald had been promised a fight against the winner. When the trilogy fight became evident, the UFC then booked MacDonald against Lombard to keep things flowing.
According to UFC Tonight, who spoke with UFC president Dana White, Lawler wanted to take some time off. The American Top Team fighter, who fought four times in 2014, expressed that idea during the UFC 181 post-fight press conference.
White said that Lawler’s request to take a break was the main reason why matchmaker Joe Silva booked Brown versus Hendricks. The other reason was that Brown needed a fight. His Feb. 14 bout against Tarec Saffiedine was cancelled when Saffediene got hurt, and with no appropriate fill-in available, the UFC opted to push him to the PPV card a month later.
White also told UFC Tonight that Hendricks, who had the title shot in the palm of his hand, didn’t want to wait out Lawler’s timetable. White said that he wanted to stay busy.