Chris Weidman News

Tom Taylor - June 13, 2018

Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman believes he should be the next man in line for reigning UFC middleweight champ Robert Whitaker. Weidman made his case for the next middleweight title shot on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “Obviously for me that would be the best case is to fight for the title,” he said (transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr. for MMAMania). “Fighting Whittaker, that’s a guy I match up well with and that’s a guy I feel I can go out there and finish.”

Tom Taylor - April 4, 2018

Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman has not fought since his July 2017 defeat of Kelvin Gastelum. The reason for this prolonged absence is a complicated thumb injury that he sustained during the fight. Unfortunately, Weidman’s thumb is still not healthy. Far from it, in fact.

Justin Golightly - February 14, 2018

Everyone is still talking about Yoel Romero’s finish — and his post-fight kiss — of Luke Rockhold from UFC 221. Despite missing weight, the consensus seems that he’ll still get the title shot against Robert Whittaker. After already being fined and losing out on a win bonus, he has been punished and did win the fight. It’s hard to argue who else would be deserving of a shot, but former champion Chris Weidman thinks it is him. Michael Bisping had a chuckle over it and broke down the fight he believes the UFC will do. “You know what’s funny? Chris Weidman, he’s saying that he should get a title shot. I think that’s kind of laughable, Chris. I don’t want to get into a whole beef with Chris Weidman, but you did get knocked out in three of your last four fights. I don’t think that makes you eligible for a title shot. I don’t think he has any case to get a title shot. I think the correct fight — and Dana [White] has announced — [is] Yoel Romero versus Robert Whittaker. I think that’s going to be a different fight. That fight was only six months ago, something like that.

Tom Taylor - February 12, 2018

Last weekend, in the main event of UFC 221, former Olympic silver medalist Yoel Romero knocked out former UFC and Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold. With this win, Romero is believed to have earned himself a crack at reigning UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker. Not everybody, however, believes he deserves this chance, as he lost a decision to Whittaker just last year. File former champ Chris Weidman into this group. While Weidman was impressed with Romero’s win, he believes he’s got a bit more work to do before earning a rematch with Whittaker. In his eyes, he himself is more deserving of the next middleweight title shot.

Drake Riggs - February 1, 2018

Next week, UFC 221 is headlined by a big middleweight fight to determine the interim champion while undisputed champion, Robert Whittaker recovers on the sideline. In that interim title fight will be recent title challenger, Yoel Romero, and former UFC champ, Luke Rockhold. Someone who’s pretty familiar with both of these fighters is another former champion, Chris Weidman who fought and lost to both fighters in back to back fights. Since these losses, he’s gone 1-1 with his last fight being a win over the very skilled, Kelvin Gastelum. While Weidman’s been recovering from a recent injury, a fellow perennial top 185er has earned a big win as well. Someone Weidman has interest in fighting as he told MMAFighting:

Tom Taylor - January 31, 2018

Next weekend, in the main event of UFC 221 in Perth, Australia, former UFC and Strikeforce middleweight champ Luke Rockhold will battle Yoel Romero for the UFC interim middleweight title. Originally, Rockhold was expected to battle undisputed champion Robert Whittaker on the card, but he still stands to win UFC gold all the same. Long-time middleweight contender Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza doesn’t feel this is right. ”They are always complicating things for me,” Souza told MMAFighting of the title situation at middleweight. “[Luke] Rockhold just beat David Branch, who came from another promotion, and is fighting for the belt. The criteria is different with me, I always have to fight one more time. I honestly think that I have to fight one more, but why only me? Rockhold just beat Branch, man, and is fighting for an interim belt? Do you get what I’m saying?”

Drake Riggs - January 18, 2018

Justin Golightly - November 14, 2017

There is finally some movement going down in the middleweight division after being in a log jam. Robert Whittaker was able to capture an interim UFC middleweight title. After that, Georges St-Pierre swooped in out of nowhere and became the new champ after submitting Michael Bisping. Meanwhile, fighters like Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero are waiting to see how everything shakes up. Chris Weidman won’t be joining them at least until sometime next year though, but he doesn’t think the division is unclogged yet. “You have [Georges St-Pierre] possibly fighting [Robert] Whittaker, but no one really believes that’s going to happen — even though Dana White is swearing up and down about it. There’s just no certainty about who’s going to be champion in the next year in the UFC. Who am I going to be able to take the belt from? I guarantee you it’s not gonna be ‘GSP.’ [St-Pierre’s next opponent will be Tyron Woodley] or if they really sell out, Conor McGregor. [St-Pierre] does find a way to outsmart people. I’ll never underestimate ‘GSP.’ He’s proved time and time again how good he really is and as much as I might think, looking how the other guys in the middleweight division are bigger and stronger and have different things than him, I won’t underestimate ‘GSP.’ He can do it all.”

Chris Taylor - September 23, 2017

Former UFC middleweight kingpin Chris Weidman picked up his first win in over two years this past July. “The All-American” scored a third-round submission victory over surging division contender Kelvin Gastelum in the main event of UFC on FOX 25 on July 22 from Long Island.

Justin Golightly - September 2, 2017

In November, Georges St-Pierre and Michael Bisping will fight for the middleweight title at Madison Square Garden while others in the division wait. With two wins in Chris Weidman’s last five fights, combined with his division’s title picture, Weidman is looking for other options. Weidman mentioned last month that he was thinking about a move to light heavyweight, but yesterday he talked more about the potential jump. It looks like this is something he’s seriously considering. “If 185’s not somewhere I’m going to fight for the title in the next two years or a year and a a half… who knows? If I do everything right, that’s just crazy to me. Who knows… 205 [pounds], we’ll see. I mean I’m open. I just want the belt. I would definitely consider it. I think I would be good at 205, but it would have to be the right thing. It would have to be where I know to find my way to the title. I’m not looking to fight just to fight. I want the belt. If there’s a clear path at 205, then that’s where I’ll head.”

Justin Golightly - August 18, 2017

The former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman is in a sort of limbo right now. He broke his losing streak by beating Kelvin Gastelum and you’d think he’d be on his way back towards that title, but his path isn’t that clear. He’s keeping his eye on a rematch with Luke Rockhold, but keeping a move to light heavyweight in his back pocket in case it’s a shorter line to the title. Meanwhile, on the outer fringes of the sport, Weidman thinks that Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather’s paths are much clearer. Not only that, but Weidman believes we’ve not seen the last of them by a long shot. “Yeah, I mean I think I have [McGregor] winning now. I think he’s gonna win. That’s my last prediction. Third-round knockout. It’s just a gut feeling, just I’m feeling it. I think it’s gonna happen and then they’re going to have a second fight, Mayweather’s gonna win that and then next thing you know they got a Conor verses Floyd trilogy, and everybody’s spent 300 bucks, which means 500 million for each of them.” — Chris Weidman via Submission Radio.

Justin Golightly - August 17, 2017

After suffering three straight losses to the top of the division’s heap, Chris Weidman finally secured a win over Kelvin Gastelum. The luck of the All-American may be looking up, but the outlook of the UFC’s middlweight division he calls home is still murky. Georges St-Pierre swooped down like some MMA super hero and cut everybody in line to fight Michael Bisping. With an already arduous path back to title contention, Weidman is getting together a contingency plan and thinks he found a short cut to another UFC belt by moving up. That’s right, Weidman could move up to light heavyweight. “Yeah, definitely there has to be a clear picture. Like I said, my goal is to be the champ and there’s no way of me getting to have the belt for two years or more just based on other people taking their time with taking fights. It’s a weird place to be, it’s not interesting. I mean, if 185 doesn’t like, things don’t change, I want to maybe think about possibly going to 205. So we’ll see.”

Tom Taylor - August 7, 2017

Last month, in the main event of the UFC’s debut in Long Island, New York, New York’s own Chris Weidman picked up an impressive submission win over surging middleweight contender Kelvin Gastelum. While Weidman managed to secure the win, however, he did not escape the fight unscathed. In the first round, the former champ was blasted by a crushing Gastelum punch – the impact of which happened to be brilliantly captured on camera by veteran combat sports photographer Esther Lin. Ever the good sport, Weidman shared this image of himself getting punched in the face on Twitter after the fight. And though he didn’t expect such a reaction, the image became something of a viral sensation.

bjpenndotcom - July 26, 2017

This past weekend, former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman picked up a much needed win as he defeated Kelvin Gastelum via submission to snap a 3-fight skid that saw ‘The All American’ go winless for two years. Following the win, Weidman called for a fight with middleweight champion Michael Bisping in his post-fight Octagon interview. He then called out the champ on social media in the days following the fight, mocking Bisping for having a crossed eye, an injury sustained during a fight. Bisping shot back, understandably mad that a fight injury was the root of Weidman’s insult.

bjpenndotcom - July 25, 2017

This past weekend in New York, former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman managed to snap a 3-fight losing streak as he picked up an impressive, and much needed, win over Kelvin Gastelum. The win was an impressive one for Weidman, who lost the middleweight title to Luke Rockhold at UFC 194, before then dropping two more KO/TKO losses at the hands of Yoel Romero and Gegard Mousasi. The fight was Weidman’s third in his home-state of New York, however it was the first time he had been able to have his hand raised in front of his home-state fans. Weidman took to social media to reflect on what could potentially be the most memorable win of his career:

Chris Taylor - July 23, 2017

Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman picked up a much needed win at last night’s UFC on FOX 25 event, submitting surging contender Kelvin Gastelum with an arm-triangle choke in the third-round of their main event fight. The victory snapped a three-fight losing skid for the “All American”, as Weidman had previously suffered knockout losses to Luke Rockhold, Yoel Romero and Gegard Mousasi respectively.

Chris Taylor - July 22, 2017

Chris Weidman picked up his first win since May of 2015 in the main event of tonight’s UFC on FOX 25 fight card from Long Island, submitting surging division contender Kelvin Gastelum in the third-round. The victory snapped Weidman’s three-fight losing skid, as “The All American” had previously suffered knockout losses to Luke Rockhold, Yoel Romero and most recently Gegard Mousasi.

Chris Taylor - July 22, 2017

A key middleweight scrap between former division champion Chris Weidman and surging contender Kelvin Gastelum served as the main event of tonight’s UFC on FOX 25 fight card from Long Island, New York. Round one begins and Weidman looks absolutely huge compared to Kelvin. Gastelum takes the center of the octagon. Weidman throws a high kick but it is blocked with ease by Kelvin. A straight right hand finds a home for Weidman. He follows that up with a front kick to the body. Gastelum with a left hook that misses and Weidman scores a nice right hand. Chris shoots in and scores an easy takedown. He works a couple of short shots before Kelvin stands back up. Weidman drags Kelvin back to the floor and winds up in side control. Weidman begins working for a kimura but when he tries to extend the arm Kelvin is able to scramble back up to his feet. Kelvin partially lands a head kick. He seems to have gained some confidence now. He lands a right hook and then a straight left that floors Weidman. He hops on him with ground and pound before the horn sounds to end round one.