The UFC’s heavyweight division is stuck once again, and this time Cain Velasquez isn’t the culprit. The oft-injured former champ is still slated to rematch Fabricio Werdum in an attempt to regain his title, but Werdum has told Dana White that he won’t be ready to fight until March. There has been no reason given for Werdum’s request to push his first title defense out nine months from the date he won the belt off of Velasquez, so it is unknown if he suffered an injury or his motives lay somewhere else. What we do know is that the list of potential heavyweight contenders which includes Andrei Arlovski, Junior dos Santos, Stipe Miocic, and perhaps even Alistair Overeem or Ben Rothwell (should either be able to pull off an upset in their next outing) will have to all get in line, and it could be a long wait. There was no other big news to come out of UFC 191, which was fitting for a show that was so unmemorable. The UFC — like the rest of us — seemed to take Labor Day Monday off as well, with no fights being announced by the organization for upcoming events. Sadly, that means the second-most notable news from the past couple of days is… BJ Penn may be willing to come out of retirement for a UFC show in Hawaii. This seems like reason enough for the UFC to delay going to Hawaii until Penn comes to his senses. He has nothing left to prove in MMA, and sending him out in front of his local fans to get beaten again would hardly be a good look for the UFC or for Penn. On the topics of rumored fights, UFC 194 may be adding to its embarrassment of riches as women’s bantamweight contenders Miesha Tate and Amanda Nunes have been linked to the card. Tate was already promised a third shot at Ronda Rousey, but then got passed over for Holly Holm. A win over a rising contender like Nunes would almost guarantee her another crack at the champion. For Nunes, Tate would mark the biggest win of her career and certainly inject some new blood into the title picture for Rousey. With her ability to strike early in fights like few other female fighters and Tate’s propensity to get off to slow starts, there’s definitely a path for the Brazilian to pick up the win here. Hopefully business picks back up for the rest of Tuesday, because I really don’t want to write about the latest Conor McGregor interview in tomorrow’s Odds and Ends.
