UFC president Dana White confirmed another double-title event for February, as both Chris Weidman and Ronda Rousey will defend their titles at UFC 184. The card is scheduled for the Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 28.
Earlier in the day, Vitor Belfort posted on Twitter that he had signed a fight contract to meet Weidman for the middleweight title. The two were originally set to collide in December, but Weidman bowed out with a hand injury.
Rousey and her opponent, Cat Zingano, were once reported for the January UFC 182 card featuring Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier. Instead, Rousey will defend her title alongside Weidman for a third time, having done so each of the past two Fourth of July-based events.
Weidman (12-0) has scored back-to-back successful title defenses, besting former UFC champions Lyoto Machida and Anderson Silva. He won the belt from Silva last year and will be meeting another former champion in Belfort (24-10). “The Phenom” was forced to delay his title bout due to the ban placed on TRT by the UFC and the Nevada Athletic Commission.
Rousey (10-0) and Zingano (9-0) were set to meet in 2013, but a knee injury by “Alpha” knocked her out of both the title fight and role as coach on The Ultimate Fighter. Rousey went on to defeat Miesha Tate, following that up with quick finishes of Alexis Davis and Sara McMann. Zingano returned from a year-plus layoff to down Amanda Nunes earlier this year.
– Georges St-Pierre was a guest on Chael Sonnen’s podcast recently, and the former UFC welterweight champion made it perfectly clear he has not decided if a return to MMA is in his future. St-Pierre was cleared to return to training recently after suffering a knee injury.
“I started training when I was seven years old,” St-Pierre said (thanks to MMAjunkie.com for transcribing). “I’ve never stopped. Training is part of my life, so it doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean I’m going to be back or not. Whether I retire or not or come back or not, I’m always going to be training.”
St-Pierre announced his decision to vacate the title last year following a successful defense vs. current champion Johny Hendricks. He is 25-2 in his MMA career, including a 19-2 mark inside the Octagon.
