A heavyweight clash between former champion Cain Velasquez and Travis Browne looks to be the first fight announced for the eagerly anticipated UFC 200 event in Las Vegas on July 9th.
That’s the word according to Ariel Helwani who confirmed on latest edition of FOX Sports 1 show, ‘UFC Tonight’ that the bout is in the works.
The injury-prone Velasquez had been set to rematch Fabricio Werdum at UFC Fight Night 82 in February, but was forced out of the contest due to a back issue.
The 33 year-old Velasquez had lost the heavyweight title to Werdum back in June of last year at UFC 188 in what would easily go down as his most disappointing display of his career to date, with his famous cardio levels appearing to be significantly depleted, which has since been blamed on a struggle to acclimatize to the high altitude in Mexico City.
Despite that loss, Velasquez remains the division’s No.1 contender, but he no longer gets an immediate title rematch and instead will now take on the division’s No.7 contender, Browne instead.
Browne, who like Velasquez is 33 years old, has experienced mixed results over the past couple of years, alternating between wins and losses for the past four fights, finding success against Brendan Schaub and Matt Mitrione, but tasting defeat against Fabricio Werdum and Andrei Arlovski.
So, in Velasquez Vs Browne we have UFC 200’s first fight, but while it may well get a place on the main card, it’s by no means going to be getting one of the headlining spots on what’s sure to be a stacked pay-per-view show.
