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Chris Weidman is scheduled to make his long-awaited octagon return tomorrow at UFC 292. He'll be facing fellow middleweight mainstay Brad Tavares in the former 185-pound champion's first fight since snapping his shin in half two years ago at UFC 261. It marks a miraculous return from what many expected to be a career ending injury.
Unfortunately, for Weidman, his bout with Tavares was not given a spot on the main card. Instead, the pair are scheduled to take part in the last fight of the prelims right before the main card. As a former middleweight champion, Chris Weidman feels slighted by his placement on the event.
In an interview with ESPN MMA, the former All-American didn't hold back on what he perceived as disrespectful treatment from the UFC, saying (at 5:18 minutes) the following:
"It's kind of disrespectful, to be honest. I'm not gonna pretend like it's not. Like, to be out for two years, with a broken injury, I broke my leg on the mats of the UFC on a pay-per-view, first card ever since COVID, first fully packed arena in Jacksonville, put my body on the line, and damn, they put me on a prelim?"
While it's easy to sympathize with Chris Weidman's sentiments, a prelim spot right before the main card is understandable given his predicament. He is currently unranked and was finished six times (including his leg break) in 8 fights prior to his hiatus.
While he is a former champion, going 2-6 in his last 8 fights, with his only two wins coming against Omari Akhmedov, who hasn't been in the UFC since 2021, and Kelvin Gastelum, a former welterweight, it's hard to justify placing him any higher on the card.
Did Chris Weidman ever fight at light heavyweight?
After a run of four losses and just one win at middleweight, Chris Weidman sought to make a change back in 2019. As one of the largest 185-pounders on the UFC roster, there were many calls for him to move up to 205 pounds. So at UFC on ESPN 6, Weidman did just that.
He faced power-punching 205-pounder Dominick Reyes in the headlining bout. Unfortunately, the former middleweight titleholder was out of his depth and was knocked out in the first round. It remains his only bout in the light heavyweight division.
