Chris Weidman opens up on emotional backstage encounter with Stephen Thompson at UFC 205

At UFC 205 earlier this month, teammates Chris Weidman and Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson both stepped into the Octagon for fights on the pay-per view portion of the historic fight card.

Weidman fought first, stepping into the Octagon for the first time in nearly a year as he fought former Cuban Olympian Yoel Romero in a middleweight #1 contender fight. With the scorecards tied at 1 round each, Weidman found himself KO’d with a brutal flying knee in the third round, which also opened up a horrific cut on the side of his head. Just two fights later, Weidman’s brother in-law, Stephen Thompson, was making his walk to the Octagon for a welterweight title fight with Tyron Woodley.

Thompson’s fight with Woodley was an extremely competitive one, and wasn’t without some controversy. While many members of the MMA community scored the fight in Thompson’s favor, the ringside judges ultimately declared the fight a majority draw, with Woodley retaining his welterweight championship due to two judges each giving Woodley a 10-8 round over Thompson.

In the wake of the fight, Weidman spoke to MMAFighting to discuss the emotional backstage encounter he had with his brother in-law Stephen Thompson:

“My wife actually [recorded] us the first time we saw each other after the fight,” Weidman said. “I watched his whole fight. I was getting my stitches and I was able to sit there and watch the fight in the room, and the first thing I did when I saw him is I apologized to him. I’m sorry that he had to see what he saw with me. We had an emotional moment, for sure.

“The video is pretty pathetic of me and him just sobbing and hugging each other for a good 30, 45 seconds. I don’t know. I felt terrible, and I’m sure it did affect him. That sucks. For him to have to watch that, that was bad. That was brutal. To see that, someone who you love get hit with a knee like that, and then you’ve got to make that walk next, there’s no question it affected him.”

Thompson, who recently appeared on BJPenn.com’s Rapid Fire, has admitted that seeing Weidman get knocked out certainly affected him, but was not an excuse for his loss.

Fortunately, fight fans will get to see Thompson and Woodley step into the Octagon together once again, as UFC President Dana White has stated that the pair will have a rematch.