While Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao stole all the headlines over the weekend by agreeing to a May 2 super fight in Las Vegas, the UFC announced a super card for UFC 187, scheduled for May 28. That night Jon "Bones" Jones will defend his light heavyweight title vs. Anthony "Rumble" Johnson, while Chris Weidman will defend his middleweight belt against Vitor Belfort.
"I am so [expletive] stoked for that card," UFC president Dana White told Yahoo Sports. "What Jon Jones has done is almost hard to believe. Go back to 2009 and look at who he's beaten. It's incredible."
Jones is coming off some serious controversy after having tested positive for cocaine ahead of his most recent title defense, then spending a single day in rehab. That has been overshadowed by his dominant performance in that particular fight, a unanimous decision win over previously undefeated Daniel Cormier.
Weidman's rise has been almost as impressive. Weidman owns two victories over the legendary Anderson Silva; in the second Silva snapped his leg attempting a leg kick on Weidman. He followed those wins with a victory over Lyoto Machida.
Should both fighters emerge victorious, it could set the stage for a super fight between Jones and Weidman. If Jones is able to knock off Johnson, he will not have much left to accomplish at the light heavyweight level. A fight vs. Cain Velasquez at heavyweight has been mentioned, but he hasn't fought since October 2013.
Weidman has dethroned arguably the greatest fighter of all-time, and if he can knock off Belfort, will have defeated two other strong middleweight contenders. Beyond Belfort and Machida it is slim pickings in terms of exciting opponents, and White may choose to pit his breakout middleweight star in a bit of a no-lose situation.
Of course Alexander Gustafsson and Cormier may have some gripes with that, but coming off losses they have a lengthier road back to the title. It does not help that both have already been beaten by Jones, even if Gustafsson's loss was extremely close.
Last summer Weidman talked about fighting Jones, saying he'd move up to take that challenge before facing then-welterweight champion Johny Hendricks.
"Jon Jones is different. He's taller than me, he's bigger than me, so that's a different story. That would be more of a test for me than Johny Hendricks," Weidman said.
"If I was at the top and he's (Jones) at the top, then that's the guy I'd want to fight, but who knows where we will be at that point. I think he'll be at the top for a while and I think I will too, so, you know. But if I had to say right now, then yeah that's the fight I want. I want to fight the best guys in the world. It's not like I'm calling out Jon Jones, but I want the toughest competition and I'd want to fight the people that other people think I can't beat."
[Yahoo]
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