Velasquez out of UFC heavyweight title fight; Miocic in

He returned in June for a title fight against Werdum in Mexico City but was adversely affected by the high altitude, and Werdum, who trains in Orange County, won by submission.

But there have also been the losses and the lost time; the months spent on the sidelines recovering from various surgeries and the bouts that got pushed back or scrapped so frequently that you expected bombshell announcements like the one that came on Sunday whenever he was scheduled to compete. We’ll see what happens. “I greatly respect you as a fighter and man, and we will meet soon”, he added. If not that would be a real shame as, at his best, Velasquez is as good a heavyweight as we’ve ever seen in the sport. When the rematch was announced for UFC 196, the response was largely underwhelming.

The Strong Style Fight Team product sits at No. 2 in the UFC rankings, behind only Werdum and Velasquez.

Velasquez would then lose his title to Junior dos Santos at the first UFC on FOX, and injuries kept piling up for Velasquez, who would only fight five more times over the next four years.

As a result, the Werdum (20-5-1) will now put his heavyweight title on the line against the surging Stipe Miocic.

In the statement posted on Facebook Velasquez explained that an ongoing issue with his sciatic nerve that was threatening to cause him longer term damage if he’d fought in a fortnight’s time is the reason he’s had to cancel on short notice. The fight will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on pay-per-view.

As of yet, Werdum hasn’t responded to the late change of opponent.

Miocic is now riding a two-fight win streak including a TKO victory over former title challenger Mark Hunt as well as a knockout over former champion Andrei Arlovski in his last trip to the Octagon.