Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort title fight slated for UFC 173 in May

[Will]

UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman (11-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) will meet top contender Vitor Belfort (24-10 MMA, 13-6 UFC) in May’s UFC 173 main event.

UFC officials today announced the bout.

Over the past two weeks, officials mentioned two possible events for the title fight: the Memorial Day weekend show on May 24 or the Independence Day weekend event on July 5.

With the fight slated for the former, which is expected to air on pay-per-view from Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena, Weidman gets his desired summer off.

Weidman recently picked up a second win over ex-champ Anderson Silva to solidify his spot as the No. 1 ranked fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA middleweight rankings. Now cleared of knee injuries, he can resume his preparations for No. 3-ranked Vitor Belfort.

Weidman previously stated he wanted the fight to happen in the U.S. due to Belfort’s use of testosterone-replacement therapy, which will surely be a talking point heading into the summer blockbuster.

“I’m happy about (fighting in Las Vegas),” Weidman said. “He’s fought in Brazil now for the last two years, and obviously he looks like the Hulk now. He’s on TRT, and he’s been caught cheating before for testosterone and I don’t know what else. … For a guy who’s 36 years old to have a lot higher testosterone than me at 29 years old, and I’ve never taken anything, is really not fair. So I’m happy that I’ll be fighting in Vegas, and I hope they’ll do due diligence in testing him to make sure he’s not cheating.”

I dont know who to pick in this one. Granted Weidman has two wins over Anderson, which is huge, but i look at both as flukes. Vitor is a beast, and i do credit the resurgence to his trt use, and seems to be getting better with age.

[muzi]

I dont know who to pick in this one. Granted Weidman has two wins over Anderson, which is huge, but i look at both as flukes. Vitor is a beast, and i do credit the resurgence to his trt use, and seems to be getting better with age.

Sorry, but his first win over Silva was not a fluke at all (Silva made a mistake but would have lost anyway-watch the 1st round again) nor was the 2nd fight Weidmann was at the same level as Silva in both fights!

Now it will be interesting to see if he can make the next step mentally and beat someone he did not visualize beating for 1 year..

[Will]

oh come on, ill give you the second but if a guy has his hands down and he's telling you to hit him in the face and he's leaning into it and you don't ko him then you might need to find another profession. Im just not sold on Weidman yet.

[muzi]

One doesn't really know what you get with Weidamnn - one of the best in this division for a very kong time or a short time wonder..I think this guy is really gifted and deserved his win over Silva Nr.1 (sorry, kharma hit Silva right in the back). Silva wasn't ready or convinced to win this fight, at least his body language and handling of the fight told me so (which is a subjective opinion).
From what I thought before the 2nd fight was, that Silva will come out stronger and is a favourite of taking the belt back at 65-45 percent - but what happened: Weidmann stood his man and was toe to toe with "the best of all time"..

Belfort will be an even greater challenge, simply because Weidmann trained 1 year to beat Silva (studied his style, visualized it etc.).
But with Belfort and his best shape of his career, huge self confidence and his trt use, I think Belfort will at least metnally, be a greater challenge to Weidmann than Silva...

[Will]

and now with Belfort dropping out because of the trt ban now that's a mute point as far as Weidman goes. At this point in his career he cant afford to pass on a title shot, I don't think he gets another one before he hangs up the gloves.