Chris Weidman meets Tim Boetsch at UFC 155 in Las Vegas this December

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Chris Weidman won't be getting a shot at Anderson Silva in his next bout, but he will have a chance to further prove himself as one of the best fighters in the UFC's middleweight ranks. The UFC announced on Friday that Weidman will meet Tim Boetsch at UFC 155 this December in a middleweight showcase.

Weidman has exploded in the last year, winning his first five fights inside the Octagon in a 16-month span, and doing so in increasingly impressive fashion. The 28-year-old capped that run off with a dominating destruction of highly regarded middleweight Mark Munoz in July. In that fight, Weidman decimated Munoz in the second round while holding Munoz to zero strikes landed in the fight.

Boetsch has emerged as a legitimate middleweight force in the last year as well, and could end 2012 as the improbable "Fighter of the Year." In February, Boetsch survived some bad spots against Yushin Okami and pulled off a third round knockout win, following that up by snapping Hector Lombard's six-year unbeaten streak at UFC 149 in July. A win over Weidman would put him on the fast track to a title shot in the division as well.

UFC 155 takes place from Las Vegas on December 29 as the UFC's annual year-end event, and will be headlined by a Heavyweight Championship rematch between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_14317.shtml

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