Not everyone can get a beautiful mixed martial arts (MMA) retirement.
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight champion Chris Weidman has had a whirlwind of a few months. Firstly, he was supposed to fight in his home state of New York at UFC 309 inside the iconic Madison Square Garden. However, that did not happen because his fight was scrapped due to his opponent, Eryk Anders, getting sick on the day of the event.
The fight was eventually rebooked for UFC 310 but did not go Weidman’s way. He was stopped in the second round due to strikes (watch it). His boss, UFC CEO Dana White, called for his retirement immediately after the event.
A month later, during the UFC 311 weigh-in show, the 40-year-old retired, but that’s not how he wanted it to go.
“I kind of was thinking I would announce that I’m retiring and put down my gloves, and it would be pretty cool,” Weidman revealed during The Ariel Helwani Show. “But, honestly, the UFC, we’re like, you know, ‘Chris, we’re going to put you on the prelims again. We can’t put you on main cards.'”
“It kind of sucks to see,” Weidman added. “A champion like that being put on prelims all the time and like, what am I doing? You know, all of these up-and-comers and guys that were put in my position like I was years and years ago coming, they got to make stars out of these guys and these former champions like myself, who aren’t doing so great – losing fights – you go from riches to rags basically in the UFC. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s just business.”
As is all MMA retirements, Weidman’s was short-lived because he signed with the new Global Fight League (GFL) and got drafted to Team New York in hopes of rematching Luke Rockhold, Gegard Mousasi, and Uriah Hall.
Weidman (16-8) has won three fights since losing his Middleweight title in 2015 and has been finished in seven of his eight losses.
