Jack Hermansson says UFC still wants him to fight Chris Weidman

Middleweight contender Jack Hermansson says the UFC still wants him to fight Chris Weidman after their fight for UFC Oklahoma City was canceled.

Hermansson was set to fight Weidman in the main event of the Oklahoma City card that was eventually canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the bigger problem is that Hermansson is from Europe and there are travel restrictions right now to get him to the United States. The UFC was already looking at alternate opponents for Weidman, including matchups against Yoel Romero and Edmen Shahbazyan.

Speaking to MMAFighting.com’s Eurobash Podcast, Hermansson said that while he can’t currently fight Weidman from a logistical standpoint, the UFC is doing everything it can to secure him a visa and keep the matchup against Weidman intact.

“Right now, I’m not sure they will be able to get me a new visa, they are working on it and as soon as things are sorted, and the UFC thinks they can make it happen, so I’m sure they will,” Hermansson said.

“I’m not too sure what day I got the notice (about travel restrictions), but it was not unexpected. I trained hard for the fight, but I knew this could happen, but I’m still training and waiting for a new chance that it will show up.”

Hermansson last fought in September 2019 at UFC Copenhagen when he was knocked out by Jared Cannonier in the main event. As for Weidman, he was knocked out by Dominick Reyes at UFC Boston last October in his first fight at 205lbs in the UFC. Both Hermansson and Weidman are two of the top-15 middleweights in the UFC and on paper, it’s an intriguing style matchup, so it makes sense the UFC wants to keep it intact. However, the coronavirus pandemic may not let that happen.

Do you want to see Jack Hermansson fight Chris Weidman or would you rather see alternate matchups?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 5/1/2020.