Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight champion Chris Weidman ended his three-fight losing streak earlier this year by submitting Kelvin Gastelum at UFC on FOX 25 (full video here). While “All American” would’ve preferred to build on his momentum sooner rather than later, a thumb injury sidelined the former 185-pound kingpin. But, what was supposed to be a six-week sit has now turned into an extended hiatus.
“My hand is going all right — not great,” Weidman told ESPN. “I’m not really sure how long it’s going to be. I was with UFC’s physical therapist, and she was hoping maybe in two months I could be 100 percent. There’s no telling. I guess it’s a unique injury.
“Basically, they took the tendon out of my wrist to anchor my thumb into the socket because the ligament had torn,” he continued. “[The doctor] kind of did tell me, it’s almost the equivalent of doing an ACL on a knee. I’m like, ‘What? What happened to that six-week mark you were talking about?'”
While Weidman gets healthy, the 185-pound weight class will keep trucking along without him. With newly-crowned champion Georges St-Pierre’s hesitance to commit to the division, Weidman says who he faces when he returns is up in the air. Because as you may have guessed, “All American” has his eyes on the strap after getting back into the win column.
“You have ‘GSP’ possibly fighting Whittaker, but no one really believes that’s going to happen — even though [UFC president] Dana White is swearing up and down about it. There’s just no certainty about who’s going to be champion in the next year in the UFC,” said the former champion. “Who am I going to be able to take the belt from? I guarantee you it’s not gonna be ‘GSP.'”
Still, there won’t be a shortage of challengers not wearing the division crown ready and willing to welcome Weidman back into the cage.
Care to offer up any suggestions for a potential return opponent?