Chris Weidman Gets Jacare Souza As New UFC 230 Opponent

UFC 230 has been fraught with problems that few other events have been in the history of the world’s largest mixed martial arts promotion. UFC 230 will take place on November 3rd at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It will be the promotion’s third trip to the world’s most famous arena. The first time the UFC visited NYC two years ago, they had superstar Conor McGregor as a headliner. Last year, they had the legendary Georges St. Pierre at the top of the bill. Things are a little different this year. They did not have a marquee name to put at the top of the card. They thought it might be Jon Jones. However, he wanted more time to train and prepare for his next fight.

The most recent problem with UFC 230 occurred when Luke Rockhold had to pull out of his middleweight fight with Chris Weidman. The fight would have been a rematch that ended with Rockhold getting a TKO victory and taking Weidman’s middleweight title away in the process. However, Rockhold recently announced that he will be unable to fight because of a variety of physical problems that he is currently suffering from. He had an injury to his leg that was surgically repaired. It has become infected. He also recently had his nose broken during training.

News from MMA Fighting of Rockhold pulling out only two weeks before the fight meant that the UFC had to scramble to find a replacement. Fortunately, there were already some other middleweights who were scheduled to fight that night. Jacare Souza agreed to fight Weidman on short notice. This is a fight that UFC fans have waited for a long time. Both fighters have been in the UFC for many years. However, they have never fought each other before until now. Souza presents a much different challenge than Rockhold. Souza is known for being outstanding at grappling. Rockhold is more of a striker than Souza. This means that Weidman will need to adjust his training without a lot of time to prepare.

There is a lot at stake for Weidman in this fight. He recently revealed that he has been promised a fight against the middleweight champion if he is able to defeat Souza. Current middleweight champion Robert Whittaker is scheduled to fight Kelvin Gastelum early next year. Weidman would face the winner of that fight if he is victorious at UFC 230. However, Jacare Souza will have a lot to say about that.