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Last night it was revealed that former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans had injured his knee and would be unable to fight Daniel Cormier in the co-main event of UFC 170 next week in Las Vegas. According to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports, Evans' injury was expected to keep him out for roughly a month, and that UFC officials had planned to re-schedule the bout for an upcoming card. According to Sportsnet's Joe Ferraro, Evans/Cormier is headed for UFC 172 in Baltimore, squashing the already unlikely idea of Chael Sonnen/Cormier for UFC 170.
While Chael did step up to take on DC, the Evans vs Cormier bout has been moved to UFC 172: Jones vs Teixeira, Apr 26th, in Baltimore.
— Joe Ferraro (@ShowdownJoe) February 13, 2014
This means UFC 172 is all about the top of the light heavyweight division. Jon Jones will defend his LHW title on the April 26th card against Glover Teixeira, while Anthony Johnson returns to the Octagon against Phil Davis. Evans/Cormier would basically make this a themed PPV with every bout directly affecting the top 10.
If there was ever a damning statement about the quality and depth of UFC LHW right now, it's the fact that we've yet to have a fight in the division this year (hat tip to Rian Scalia), and we won't see one until Cyrille Diabate vs. Ilir Latifi on March 8th in London. Alexander Gustafsson against Jimi Manuwa on the same card would be the 2nd one, and then absolutely nothing else immediately impacts the top tier until late April.
Hopefully everything falls into place and UFC 172 (plus Gustafsson/Manuwa in March) provides us a conclusive outlook of light heavyweight as it stands.
SBN coverage of UFC 172: Jones vs. Teixeira
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