Lost in the shuffle of the UFC’s delayed “big announcement” and not-so-big announcement of their 2015 schedule was the promotion’s plans to re-book Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum for the heavyweight championship next summer. Dana White said in Monday’s press conference that the originally scheduled UFC 180 main event in Mexico City “belongs in Mexico” and “That’s where it’s going to happen”. White also added that the UFC’s return to Mexico will likely happen in June.
Velasquez vs. Werdum fell apart when Velasquez pulled out with a knee injury, forcing the UFC to create an interim title between Werdum and Mark Hunt. Werdum came away victorious in the 2nd round via flying knee TKO, preserving the original match-up that had essentially been in place since Werdum beat Travis Browne last April.
Assuming this fight does go down in June 2015, it will have been 20 months since Cain’s last title defense, a 5th round TKO over rival Junior dos Santos at UFC 166 in October 2013. Injuries have plagued Velasquez throughout his time at the top of the heavyweight division, and his only other 1+ year long layoff coincided with the KO loss to dos Santos, which stands to date as the only loss of his career.
About the author
