A middleweight title fight between reigning champion Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold will serve as the co-main event for the blockbuster UFC 194: Aldo Vs McGregor event in Las Vegas on December 12th.
The 31 year-old Weidman holds an unblemished 13-0 record in his mixed martial arts career to date with nine of those victories coming inside the Octagon including three successful defenses of his title.
Weidman won the belt by defeating long reigning champion Anderson Silva, then proved it wasn’t a fluke by beating him again five months later, albeit due to the fact that Silva broke his leg.
Since then Weidman has solidified his status as the best middleweight in the world with wins over two other Brazilian legends, Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort.
One thing all three of those fighters have in common though is that they are all in the later stages of their careers, while Weidman’s next opponent, Rockhold, is in a similar position as the champion, still being in his prime at the age of 30.
A former Strikeforce middleweight champion, Rockhold got off to a disappointing start in his UFC career when he was quickly KO’d by Belfort.
However, he’s since proven himself to be a major threat in the division with four big wins inside the distance against Costas Philippou, Tim Boetsch, Michael Bisping and Lyoto Machida and currently holds down the No.1 contender spot in the 185lb division.
UFC 194 was already marked out as a must see event thanks to it’s previously announced main event featherweight title fight between Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor, but as with the recent UFC 189 show which also took place in Las Vegas, the promotion have wisely looked to stack the show with a second title fight which makes it a no-brainer purchase for any self respecting MMA fan and also gives them something of a safety net if disaster strikes and the main event falls through.
