Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort: Highlights and Reaction from UFC 187

A matchup that was delayed on three separate occasions, Chris Weidman and Vitor Belfort met in the UFC 187 co-main event and did not disappoint.

Long recognized as a combatant who starts strong and looks to stop his opponents early, Belfort stormed forward with punches in the opening round. The Brazilian had Weidman covering up and was momentarily looking to finish.

However, Weidman responded with an important takedown that turned things around. The American quickly passed Belfort's guard and moved into full-mount. From there, the champion overwhelmed his challenger with ground-and-pound, which forced referee Herb Dean to step in and halt the bout.

The win gave Weidman his third straight title defense as middleweight champion. With that, he surpassed Rich Franklin for the second-longest title reign in the history of the UFC 185-pound division.

Now, Weidman will set his sights on the man he originally dethroned, Anderson Silva. The Spider recorded 10 consecutive title defenses before being knocked out by Weidman, so the current titleholder still has a good amount of work to do.

Meanwhile, Belfort has been beaten in light heavyweight and middleweights championship bouts over his past five outings. The Phenom showed how dangerous he is by blitzing Weidman early on, but it is going to take another string of victories in order for Belfort to get another shot at the current champion.

In his past three outings, Weidman has beaten the No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 contenders. So, it seems certain he will now meet either No. 1 Luke Rockhold or No. 2 Ronaldo Souza.

Rockhold has lost to Belfort, but he's stopped his past four opponents and owns a win over Souza while under the Strikeforce banner. Coming off of a submission win over Lyoto Machida, Rockhold has also been competing against tougher competition than Souza lately. Due to a Yoel Romero injury, Souza met an unranked Chris Camozzi in his most recent bout.

That said, Weidman, a New York native, doesn't want to miss a potential UFC event at Madison Square Garden at the end of 2015. So, there is a chance he could wait more than six months before returning to the Octagon.

With that in mind, it isn't out of the question that Rockhold and Souza could have a rematch to determine who is more deserving of a shot at Weidman. Given the risk of the winner suffering an injury, though, the chances of that happening do seem slim.

For the next step in his career, Belfort has some options. At 38 years old, he could look to make one more title run in the middleweight division. With Jon Jones no longer holding the light heavyweight crown, Belfort may also decide to return to 205 pounds and make a run at the top of that division.