MMA fans are in for an exciting stretch as UFC President Dana White announced two huge upcoming bouts with title implications Wednesday night.
According to UFC Tonight, Luke Rockhold will get a shot at Chris Weidman's UFC middleweight championship in the near future.
Also, Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson will clash over the UFC light heavyweight title, per UFC Tonight.
The company didn't reveal a date and venue for either bout, but both are worthy of being headlining events and drawing some big pay-per-view numbers.
Rockhold has been rumored as a challenger for Weidman's title for quite some time, as the 30-year-old fighter has impressed with a 14-2 record. There is already some bad blood built up between the two combatants as well, since Weidman put over Ronaldo Souza as a more troubling opponent, according to Dave Doyle of MMAFighting.com:
I would expect a tough fighter, but I'm running right through any of these guys. (Rockhold)'s well-rounded, but he's not great anywhere. He's not the best striker I've ever fought, he's not the best jiu-jitsu guy I ever fought. Jacare brings a different element, he's really good on the ground and he's probably more dangerous on the feet than Rockhold. Rockhold is well-rounded and keeps a good solid pace going throughout the whole fight. They are two completely different fighters. If I was to say who was more dangerous, it would probably be Jacare, but there are probably more holes in his game than Rockhold.
With regard to the other fight, there is no shortage of controversy as Gustafsson is coming off a knockout loss to Anthony Johnson.
Gustafsson did manage to push Jon Jones to the limit, but Damon Martin of Fox Sports is among those who believe Ryan Bader was more deserving of the title shot:
Cormier and Gustafsson do have the potential to put on a highly entertaining fight, though, which could prompt UFC fans to quickly forget Bader's merits.
Although there will undoubtedly be arguments about whether White made the right calls, both fights are compelling, and creating matchups that viewers want to see is ultimately White's job.
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