Chris Weidman had to stop the skid. Would home cooking help him do the trick?
Two years ago, Weidman was the UFC middleweight champ, with a 13-0 record, two wins over GOAT candidate Anderson Silva and a high perch on pound-for-pound lists everywhere to his name.
It was a quick and precipitous fall.
Various injuries hampered him. Then there was that knockout loss to Luke Rockhold that saw him relinquish his belt. Then he lost his next two—both by knockout.
So as Weidman came into UFC on Fox 25 Saturday—taking place on his native Long Island, New York—he had to stop the torrent of bad news. He still had the great pressure and wrestling and ground-and-pound. But when he faced Kelvin Gastelum, would it matter? Or would Gastelum be able to use his hands and his own pressure game to hand Weidman another thump on a suddenly suspect chin?
This was only one of 13 fights on the card. As always, the final stat lines don’t reveal it all. These are the real winners and losers from UFC on Fox 25 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.