UFC was targeting Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva 3 in Brazil

Nearly four years after their first encounter in the Octagon at UFC 162 in 2013, The UFC was looking to cash in on the possibility of a Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva trilogy fight in Brazil.

When the two met four years ago on July 6th, Wediman was an undefeated contender with a 9-0 professional MMA record, with five of those wins coming in the UFC. In just the second round, Chris Weidman shocked the world as he picked up a 2nd round KO win to claim the middleweight championship. Five months later, a rematch saw Silva’s leg snap in a moment of horror, as Weidman retained his title.

Now, nearly four years after the first fight, both men are on different courses than they once were. Silva recently snapped a losing streak by picking up a unanimous decision win over Derek Brunson at UFC 208; Weidman however is currently in the midst of a 3-fight skid that most recently saw the former champ drop a TKO loss to Gegard Mousasi at UFC 210 in April. Now, nearly four years later, You could argue that both men are once again at a place in their careers to fight one another once again.

According to Weidman, who is currently gearing up for a pivotal fight with Kelvin Gastelum on July 22nd, the UFC actually wanted to have a Silva-Weidman trilogy fight after Gastelum was pulled from his fight with Silva due to a failed drug test for marijuana.

He spoke on The MMA Hour:

“The UFC was asking me if I would fight Anderson Silva. This was, I think three and a half weeks before that fight was going on. In Rio. And I’m just like ‘no’. I was still getting things checked out on my body, and going to different doctors.”

“I had just gone to Vegas, got it all checked out. I already beat the guy twice, I’m going to take a fight on short notice and head to his hometown to fight him? I’m like ‘yeah, that’s not happening. If you want me to fight Anderson again, bump it up a couple of weeks, if you want to do it in Nassau Coliseum or some other time, but I’m not going to do it on short notice.”

on 7/4/2017.