Ex-champs Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum likely to meet at UFC 207

Cain Velasquez will likely get his rematch with fellow ex-UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum in December.

Werdum (21-6-1 MMA, 9-3 UFC) and Velasquez (14-2 MMA, 12-2 UFC), respectively No. 2 and No. 3 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA heavyweight rankings, are targeted for a long-awaited rematch at UFC 207.

The fight isn’t signed but has been offered to the competitors, according to people close to both camps who requested anonymity because they aren’t authorized to discuss the booking publicly.

UFC 207 takes place Dec. 30 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. As with other major year-end UFC events, it airs on pay-per-view.

Velasquez, knowing current heavyweight titleholder Stipe Miocic (16-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) has requested some time off following his recent title defense over Alistair Overeem (41-15 MMA, 6-4 UFC), actually proposed the bout during Wednesday’s edition of “UFC Tonight”

The proposed Velasquez vs. Werdum rematch comes less than a week after Werdum’s co-main-event win at UFC 203 over Travis Browne (18-4-1 MMA, 9-4-1 UFC), who stepped in for injured Ben Rothwell at this past Saturday’s pay-per-view event at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

Werdum afterward requested a title shot against Miocic. However, the champ instead said he’s hoping for a break after three fights in 2016, leaving the promotion to queue up his second title defense.

In this case, Werdum would get a likely title-eliminator after losing the title to Miocic at UFC 198, which was his first attempted title defense after capturing the belt from Velasquez at UFC 188.

Werdum and Velasquez previously were set for an immediate rematch at UFC 196 in February, but the injury bug once again bit Velasquez, and he was forced to withdraw. One day later, Werdum withdrew citing an injury, and the entire fight card was downgraded to a FS1-televised event, UFC Fight Night 82. (UFC 196 was pushed to March and wound up hosting the first blockbuster fight between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz.)

Interestingly, Werdum’s UFC 203 win over Browne comes two months after Velasquez stopped the same opponent – in the first round at UFC 200 – to rebound from his title loss to Werdum.