A heavyweight contender’s bout first reported by Inside Fights last week has been moved to UFC 104.
The bout, which was originally under consideration for the main event or co-main event of UFC 103 in Dallas, will instead take place underneath the Lyoto Machida vs. Shogun Rua light heavyweight title match.
The winner of the Velasquez/Carwin fight will be in immediate contention for the heavyweight championship, but despite published reports to the contrary, they won’t face the winner of the Brock Lesnar/Frank Mir title unification match that takes place at UFC 100. That honor will go to either Antonio Rodrigo Nogeuira or Randy Couture, who meet in August to determine the next challenger for the heavyweight title.
I haven’t gotten confirmation, but the Carwin/Velasquez fight being moved to UFC 104 leads me to believe that the fight between Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin (which Inside Fights also first reported) is either official or nearing completion.
UPDATE: We spoke to Carwin’s camp today to get clarification on the bout being moved to UFC 104 instead of UFC 103. Carwin’s manager stated that two days after Inside Fights initially broke the story about the bout, the UFC approached him and offered him the fight with Velasquez for 103. He turned the fight down for 103 because he felt Carwin wouldn’t be ready in time, but agreed to the UFC 104 bout in Los Angeles.
