With the UFC Heavyweight Championship off of this weekend’s event in Las Vegas, the UFC downgraded it to a Fight Night card, necessitating the addition of another pay-per-view event on the schedule this spring.
Now, according to a report from Combate in Brazil, they may be upgrading another planned Fight Night event into a pay-per-view card. Per the report, the May 14 event in Brazil is expected to now be UFC 198, and the Heavyweight Title fight between Fabricio Werdum and Stipe Miocic – a bout the UFC attempted to have as a replacement headliner this weekend – is now targeted as the headliner on that May date.
If that should come to pass, the previously announced bout for that date between Vitor Belfort and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza would be bumped down to the co-main event. For Miocic, should the fight indeed be made, it’s the matchup he’d been hoping for, while it also means the UFC is apparently abandoning the rematch between Werdum and Velasquez.
Penick’s Analysis: If this sticks – and Combate’s been quite credible on the Brazilian MMA scene – then it means the UFC is still skipping Memorial Day weekend for a pay-per-view. It’s honestly probably the right route, as they can then run UFC 199 in early June to give them a full month to hype up the UFC 200 card exclusively. The Miocic fight isn’t necessarily the best or most exciting, but it definitely works given the other options available.
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