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Following his unfortunate string of defeats between 2015 and 2019, Chris Weidman is finally back in the win column - getting his first win in the UFC in over three years.
It was against the #11 ranked Omari Akhmedov and he had to fight back from a difficult second-round before he won a decisive third-round and subsequently - the unanimous decision.
Chris Weidman looks more motivated than he has in the last few years and it's going to be interesting to see if he has a career resurgence with a few more wins. While Marvin Vettori is one name who has called out Chris Weidman, he'll have a few more options - since he's a former UFC Middleweight Champion.
Speaking to Megan Olivi in the post-fight interview, Chris Weidman explained why he wasn't too satisfied with his win over Omari Akhmedov (H/T MMA Mania):
“I guess some times it’s not the way you expect it to be, but you gotta keep grinding through. I guess that’s what I did, but I’m not too happy with that performance. I’m happy to get a W but it’s not what I expected and I’m just a little bummed out. But at the same time it could be much worse.”
He explained why it was a weird fight and also described it as "sloppy":
“It was just such a weird fight,” he continued. “It was so sloppy. Every time I got to his legs, I was like a little bit off, a little bit too low on the leg or a little bit too high. The weight was just off. It turned into a sloppy fight. But it came down to that third round, I was able to dig deep and come up with the W. Even in the second round when he was getting to the single leg, I was going for this new choke I was doing and every time he just f***ing took me down.”
Chris Weidman's future at 185-pounds
All indications seem to be that Chris Weidman will be staying at Middleweight. His one-off jump to Light Heavyweight saw him get knocked out by a rising 205-pound star in Dominick Reyes.
Most fans won't give Chris Weidman much of a chance at Middleweight - which is now among the most stacked divisions on the UFC roster. It's going to be interesting to see whether Chris Weidman can pick up a few more wins or if it's going to be back to the "L" column for him.
