Heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic’s next title defense is rumored to be against Junior dos Santos at UFC 211 in Dallas, Texas on May 13th.
That’s the word according to Brazilian site Combate, and if so it would see the champion face up against the last man to defeat him, with Dos Santos having earned a unanimous decision victory over Miocic back at UFC On FOX 13 in December of 2014.
Since that closely contested fight, Miocic has produced a four-fight winning streak, defeating the likes of Mark Hunt, Andrei Arlovski, Fabricio Werdum and most recently Alistair Overeem to become the divisional kingpin.
As for Dos Santos, he has fought just twice in over two years, first suffering a second round TKO loss to Alistair Overeem and then rebounding with a rejuvenated performance as he defeated Ben Rothwell by unanimous decision.
That left the former champion placed at No.4 in the division and it had been assumed that he’d still need at least one more big win before getting at title shot again, with two other former title holders in Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez above him in the pecking order.
However, a No.1 contender rematch between Werdum and Velasquez fell through at UFC 207 in December after Velasquez revealed he had a back injury, leading to him being declared unfit to fight.
Werdum refused to take a replacement fight at the event unless he was paid $500,000, a demand the UFC rejected, and given that he’d previously been removed from his role as a Brazilian color commentaor for the promotion after publicly criticizing the promotion’s apparel sponsor, Reebok, it seems the 39 year-old is now in the dog house with the UFC brass.
