Dana White: Chris Weidman closest to title shot; Hector Lombard loss, Tim Boetsch injury throw wrench in 185 lb. plans

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The UFC hoped to have a plan mapped out for the middleweight division after Saturday night's UFC 149 event, but the Hector Lombard vs. Tim Boetsch bout ended up putting a wrench in that.

Boetsch took a split decision in a massively tentative, dull fight with Lombard, derailing the Bellator Champion's hype train immediately. On top of that, he broke his foot in the second round of the fight, leaving the UFC with some new decisions to make.

"This doesn't make the 185-pound division any less exciting right now," White said after the UFC 149 post-fight press conference (transcribed by MMAJunkie.com). "But [Boetsch] has a broken foot, Lombard lost. I had fights made with the winner of this one either way, and now we've got to regroup. Because of course, one guy loses and the other guy's injured."

The UFC has a number of middleweight fighters getting themselves lined up to be in a title fight against Anderson Silva, but no clear claim for that next shot. They had hoped to have a number of bouts lined up fairly soon, including Michael Bisping vs. Brian Stann in September, to thin the herd a bit, but there is one name at the top of the list should Silva look to come back by this fall.

"If I had to right now say we have to make a fight right now because Anderson wants to fight in two months, I'd do the Weidman fight," White said. "I haven't talked to (Anderson) yet. He does want to fight. He's ready to go again. But I haven't talk to him yet."

"An impressive win's going to give somebody a title shot," White continued. "I'm looking for a guy who goes out and performs like Weidman. You go in and you're ranked low in the Top 10 and you take out No. 2 or 3 the way [he] did – that's what I'm excited about."

Penick's Analysis: I'd imagine Weidman could be the man in line for the next title shot, while the UFC attempts to figure out the rest of the division. The Lombard-Boetsch winner was likely in line then to take on either Weidman or Alan Belcher, possibly even Vitor Belfort, and the end result of that fight won't allow it to happen. If I had to guess, I think we'll see Belcher-Belfort, with the winner fighting the Bisping-Stann winner, and Weidman taking on Silva in the next title bout.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_13908.shtml

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