There’s been some confusion over who will Junior Dos Santos would be fighting next since his originally scheduled opponent Alistair Overeem pulled out of their co-main event clash at UFC 160 due to an injury, but we now have the final answer.
It’s been officially confirmed that Dos Santos will now remain on the card and fight Mark Hunt instead.
There had been a significant buzz amongst fans for a fight between JDS and Hunt since Overeem first pulled out earlier in the week, but despite ‘The Super Samoan’ claiming to be up for the fight there was confusion when Dana White claimed that he had in fact turned it down and so JDS Vs Overeem would instead be pushed back until a later date.
However, White has since had a private conversation with Hunt and the upshot is that he will now fight the former champion.
Hunt is currently enjoying a remarkable and wholly unexpected resurgence in his MMA career at the age of 38, banishing a dreadful six fight run of defeats thanks to four victories in a row inside the Octagon.
This underdog story combined with his history in the PRIDE organization has captured fans imaginations and that’s likely to be a big reason why the UFC have given him this opportunity to fight one of the division’s elite fighters.
Dos Santos is himself coming off a title loss in rematch with Cain Velasquez, his first in 10 fights in the UFC and he’ll see this bout as a chance to get right back into title contention against the winner of UFC 160’s main event between Velasquez and Antonio Silva.
As yet there’s no word on who Alistair Overeem will now face when he returns from injury in the summer.
