Chris Weidman needed to admit it: He didn’t love being bumped from the UFC 309 pay-per-view major card.
“I was on pay-per-view up until, like a week ago, and then they took me off. I was honestly pissed off at first,” Weidman confided to The Publish on Wednesday’s media day forward of Saturday’s occasion at Madison Sq. Backyard. “Obviously, I can’t do anything about that. They do what they want to do.”
Somewhat than putting a bitter tone, Lengthy Island native Weidman, who reigned as UFC middleweight champion from 2013-15 and headlined three pay-per-view occasions throughout that interval, appeared to grasp what he advised could have been the logic behind the shift off the marquee portion of the occasion.
“If I go out there and put on a great win, what does that really do for them?” posited Weidman, who weathered a dreadful restoration from a gnarly 2021 leg fracture but in addition turned 40 in June. “I only have a certain amount of time left, when they could put, like, a young guy on there, a potential star for them, and then monetize that.”
Regardless of the case could also be, Weidman’s mindset has modified even from summer time 2023, when he made his return to competitors after greater than two years away to rehab the damage suffered whereas throwing a leg kick at Uriah Corridor — practically an identical to the style during which Weidman checked an Anderson Silva kick that fractured the legendary Brazilian’s leg 11 years in the past.
At the moment, Weidman (16-7, 10 finishes) shared with The Publish that he nonetheless harbored hopes of a championship run practically a decade after dropping the title.
That’s now not the foremost driving drive on the subject of his athletic profession.
“I would love to get back to the championship fight, but it’s more I’m taking a fight at a time now,” says Weidman, a local of Baldwin who moved to South Carolina for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic. “I just want to see if I can perform under the lights and do what I love doing in the gym, and see how the body holds up and see where a great win takes me. But if I’m not able to perform the way I want to perform anymore, then I’ll probably be done.”
Saturday will “probably not” be his swan tune, though he famous he’s “not thinking about that” getting into his matchup towards veteran Eryk Anders (16-8, 10 finishes), a former beginning linebacker for 2009 BCS nationwide champion Alabama.
Getting a win could be further candy for Weidman given the venue.
The native New Yorker was a significant presence through the UFC’s lobbying push to convey skilled MMA again to the Empire State in 2016, however he’s 0-2 competing on the Backyard.
“Both meant a lot for me to win,” Weidman remembers with a wry giggle. “I was winning both fights going into that third round, got hit with a monster shot, and that was it; my night was over. It was awful. But I just see [Saturday] as an opportunity to, you can either run from it and be afraid of it or take it on and use it as motivation to get your redemption, so that’s where I’m at.”
