Chris Weidman News

Chris Taylor - October 20, 2018

Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold were expected to rematch in the co-headliner of next month’s UFC 230 event in New York City. Unfortunately for fight fans, the key middleweight bout was recently cancelled after Luke Rockhold was forced to withdraw due to injuries.

Drake Riggs - October 19, 2018

No time was wasted in finding Chris Weidman (14-3) a replacement after Luke Rockhold was forced out of their UFC 230 rematch earlier today. After continued issues with his leg among various other injuries including a broken nose, Rockhold found himself with no other option than to pull out of this upcoming bout with the man he won the UFC title from in 2015.

Tom Taylor - September 27, 2018

For a time, it sounded as though former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold was headed north to the UFC light heavyweight division. Ultimately, however, Rockhold was booked for a rematch with Chris Weidman, the very man he took the middleweight title from in 2015. The pair’s rematch will go down at UFC 230 this November 3 in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

Tom Taylor - September 17, 2018

In December of 2015, former Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold stepped into the cage with Chris Weidman in hopes of stealing the UFC middleweight title. After three wild rounds of fighting, Rockhold succeeded on his mission, stopping Weidman with a volley of fourth-round strikes and capturing the UFC middleweight belt. On November 3, on the main card of UFC 230, Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman will step into the cage for a second time. If Weidman is able to defeat Rockhold, thereby evening the score with him, it’s conceivable the pair could be booked for a tie-breaking trilogy fight in the near future.

Tom Taylor - August 2, 2018

Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman was hoping that he would get the next shot at reigning champion Robert Whittaker. Whittaker himself also seemed to be on board with this plan. Unfortunately for Weidman, the next middleweight title shot will instead go to Kelvin Gastelum — who he defeated in his last fight. Whittaker and Gastelum, both Ultimate Fighter winners, will coach the next season of the show against one another, and meet in a title fight thereafter. Weidman, meanwhile, is scheduled for a rematch with Luke Rockhold — the man who ended his title reign — at UFC 230 in New York.

Drake Riggs - July 23, 2018

UFC 230 looks to be getting another high-level middleweight affair. And it’s safe to say that no one really saw it coming. Former middleweight champions of the UFC, Luke Rockhold, and Chris Weidman were to initially have their rematch at UFC 199 in 2016. Unfortunately for Weidman, he would get injured out of the bout thus costing him his chance at regaining the gold.

Tom Taylor - June 14, 2018

Now that Robert Whittaker has defeated Yoel Romero for a second time — he did so by decision in the main event of UFC 225 — there are two clear frontrunners in the race to the next middleweight title shot. One is former middleweight champion Chris Weidman. The other is streaking contender Kelvin Gastelum. Weidman believes he deserves the next middleweight title shot because he submitted Kelvin Gastelum in his last fight. He also believes that his accolades as a former middleweight champion — with three defenses to his name — outweigh his three recent losses to Luke Rockhold, Romero and Gegard Mousasi.

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.”

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.

Tom Taylor - February 5, 2018

For a time, Anderson Silva stood out as the greatest mixed martial artist alive. Eventually, however, his reign was brought to an abrupt and violent halt by a young Chris Weidman, who defeated him first by second-round knockout, and then again as the result of a brutal leg injury. Yet even after his losses to Weidman, Silva remained a frontrunner for MMA’s Greatest of All Time title. Sure, he seemed to be on a career downslide, but his remarkable accomplishments seemed to be ironclad.

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:

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.”

Tom Taylor - October 29, 2017

Last night, on the undercard of the UFC’s action-packed stop in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu ace Antonio Carlos Junior picked up a dominant, first-round submission win over Jack Marshman. While this win dazzled those watching live in Brazil and on screens around the world, it’s just what the Brazilian himself expected. “I said before [in] the interviews, man, I’m going to submit the guy – he’s never been submitted before – in the first round,” Carlos Junior told MMAJunkie.com of this big win. “And I just did it. So I’m really happy. I’m not even in my prime.”

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 - 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.”