https://twitter.com/jeremybotter/status/732678384002568192
There are two things UFC fans generally dislike — constant title fight rematches and the injury bug. This time, that damn injury bug has saved us from a rematch, with Chris Weidman being forced to withdraw from his UFC 199 fight against Luke Rockhold due to an injury. But that doesn’t mean we still can’t get a rematch for the middleweight title on June 4.
Michael Bisping, who defeated Anderson Silva at the end of February in one of the strangest UFC fights in recent memory, has made it known that he’ll step up on short notice against Rockhold.
Training camps separate the boys from the men. This sport isn't for everyone. 2 weeks notice? I'm down!!! @ufc #realfighter #fightersfighter
— michael (@bisping) May 17, 2016
His jockeying for the title fight may be undercut by the fact that Rockhold dispatched him fairly easily in the second round of their November 2014 meeting. So, the next possible opponent is Jacaré Souza, who dominated Vitor Belfort at UFC 198 and is probably ready to go if he feels comfortable not having a full camp. Souza is intimately familiar with Rockhold, who took the Strikeforce middleweight belt off of Souza back in 2011. Ever since then, Souza has been nearly perfect (outside of a split-decision loss to Yoel Romero who would go on to test positive for banned substances).
So are the only options to replace a rematch with more rematches? No. There’s a middleweight we aren’t thinking about, and since Jon Jones versus Ovince St. Preux set the precedent — f*ck it. Let’s do it.
Uriah Hall versus Luke Rockhold at UFC 199.
He may be coming off a loss against Robert Whittaker at UFC 193, but who cares? Chael Sonnen hadn’t won a fight in years at light heavyweight when he got his shot against Jon Jones. Let’s get the best, most interesting fight in this situation, and most importantly one we haven’t seen before. Hall is currently 10th in the UFC middleweight rankings and his TKO of Gegard Mousasi should propel him into title talk. There’s no reason not to do this (unless Jacaré says no (let’s skip over Bisping entirely)).
C’mon, Dana. Let’s have some fun.
(Via FloCombat)