UFC: 5 Reasons Mark Hunt Will Fail To Claim Heavyweight Gold

5. It's Extremely Short Notice

When Cain Velasquez went down to a knee injury about a week ago, there was little the UFC could do. Although it wasn't expect to be overly severe (that would later change, going from bad to worse), the champion had already been out all of 2014. In fact, he hadn't fought since October 2013, over a year ago now. Heavyweights in the UFC with winning records of late are also hard to come by. Junior Dos Santos had a fight booked and has lost to Velasquez twice, beaten him once, and beaten Werdum once. Putting him in would mean, were he to beat Werdum again, a fourth fight with Cain, and that's just too soon. Alistair Overeem is in the worst slump of his career. Travis Browne is coming off a loss. Stipe Miocic was booked with dos Santos and lacks the name to headline a card. Roy Nelson had just lost - to Hunt. Arlovski is injured, Barnett is coming off a loss, Mir has lost four straight, Big Nog is nearing retirement, Struve is facing Overeem and is a gamble health-wise, Bigfoot Silva is coming off a loss. That's not a lot of title contender options. So Hunt, who fought Nelson just in January, got the nod. As a fan favourite, he can carry the card - but it's very short notice. Not time to watch tape, not time to work on his ground game, which will be key against Werdum. It also leads to our next problem.