Luke Rockhold vs. Jacare Souza has been scratched from the Fight Night 101 event later this month due to a knee injury suffered by the former Middleweight Champ Rockhold. The injury was first reported by MMAFighting.com. The match-up between the no. 2 and no. 4 Middleweights in the latest MMATorch Rankings would have had major ramifications on the Middleweight Division, now led by champ Michael Bisping.
Bisping called out GSP and Nate Diaz because he’s eager and ready to fight, but has said the top Middleweight contenders had been tied up. That’s not the case anymore.
“If it’s not ‘GSP,’ I don’t mind being on the card against somebody else,” he said on his Sirius XM show this week. “And Nick Diaz would be somebody else that moves the needle.”
Sourca’s manager, Gilberto Faria, said Souza is ready to fight and he is only interested in fighting Bisping next.
Keller’s Analysis: Since Bisping has made it clear he’s ready and willing to fight, rather than calling out opponents with marquee value to make some money, he now has a top three contender in Souza who is more than willing to face him. It makes sense, other than perhaps UFC would consider that too big of a fight to give away on a Fight Night card. But that Fight Night card needs a main event, and Souza is ready to fight. Perhaps the fight could be shifted to UFC 206 two weeks later, which without GSP could use one more marquee match to support Daniel Cormier vs. Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. It’d weaken the Fight Night card, but give a big boost to the UFC 206 show. Stay tuned.
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