The top end of the UFC’s heavyweight division continues to move at a snails pace with news now emerging that the next title fight between current champion Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez won’t take place until March of next year.
Former champ Velasquez was injury-prone during his title run which has meant that by the time the next title fight does roll around the belt will only have been contested three times in almost three years.
It’s not Velasquez that’s the problem this time around though as according to UFC President Dana White it’s Werdum who’s holding things up on this occasion as, according to a UFC exec, “that’s when Werdum wants to fight.”
Werdum has been averaging two fights a year during his second stint in the UFC, but his decision means he’ll have fought just once in 2015, taking out Velasquez in convincing fashion with a third round guillotine choke in Mexico City this past June.
The delay means that the UFC’s other top contenders may have to remain active in the mean time while waiting for their chance to fight for the belt.
Andrei Arlovski defeated Frank Mir on Saturday night which on paper could have been enough to book him a shot at the belt, but it was a lethargic, uninspiring performance so it’s perhaps not such a bad thing if he had to fight again.
Stipe Miocic Vs Ben Rothwell and Junior dos Santos Vs Alistair Overeem take place in October and December respectively and so we should have a clearer picture of how things are going to unfold after that.
