Despite injury to Chris Weidman, Jacare Souza sitting out until February in hopes of replacing Vitor Belfort

Because it doesn't hurt for UFC to have a Plan B.

After dominating Gegard Mousasi at UFC Fight Night 50 a few weeks back (video), Ronald Souza's stock rose dramatically, as he shot up to No. 2 on the officials rankings (see them here).

That's one spot ahead of Vitor Belfort; the man next in line for a shot at the middleweight title.

Despite the turn of events, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White suggested that "Jacare" would likely have to fight -- and win -- one more time before getting a shot at the title.

And while that's all fine and well with Team Souza, as "Jacare's" manager recently told MMA Fighting that they are on standby just in case Belfort can't make his championship fight against "All American."

"I haven't talked to Jacare about it yet, but my position, as his manager, is that we will wait until February. That's good because Jacare will have more time to recover, take some time off with his family before he returns to war. Our plan hasn't changed much. We will be ready to replace Belfort, in case something happens to him, and fight Weidman. If Vitor fights (Weidman in February), we will get another fight quickly and be ready to fight the champion, whoever wins between Weidman and Vitor, in four or six months."

Nothing wrong with being prepared.

Weidman was forced to pull out of his fight against Belfort -- which was set to go down at UFC 181 on Dec. 6, 2014 -- due to a broken arm, forcing UFC officials to push back the much anticipated showdown to February 2015.

That's the second time a title fight between the two 185 pounders has been postponed, though for drastically different reasons.

Still, Souza and Co. are staying the course and won't let the unfortunate circumstances change their plans. But just in case Belfort can't stay healthy -- or clean -- from here until February, "Jacare" is more than ready to fill the void.