The injury delays that pulled Fabricio Werdum’s first title defense out of February wound up benefiting him, as he’s gotten his wish of a stadium event in Curitiba, Brazil.
The UFC officially announced on Friday that Werdum will defend the Heavyweight Championship against Stipe Miocic on May 14 at UFC 198, and the card will emanate from Curitiba’s 42,000-seat Arena da Baixada stadium.
Several fights are already known for the card, as it had initially been planned to be a Fight Night event headlined by Vitor Belfort vs. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. That middleweight matchup now serves as the co-main event.
Werdum captured the title from Cain Velasquez last June, beating him up on the feet and wearing him out before catching him in a guillotine choke in the third round. He’ll now defend against Miocic, who gets his shot after a 54 second stoppage over former champ Andrei Arlovski in January.
Here’s the current lineup for the May 14 event, whose main card airs live on pay-per-view:
Fabricio Werdum vs. Stipe Miocic
Ronaldo Souza vs. Vitor Belfort
Patrick Cummins vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Matt Brown vs. Demian Maia
Bryan Barberena vs. Warlley Alves
Nate Marquardt vs. Thiago Santos
Leonardo Santos vs. Evan Dunham
Yancy Medeiros vs. Francisco Trinaldo
Kamaru Usman vs. Sergio Moraes
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