Chris Weidman is looking to climb the ladder again and face current middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in the future.
Weidman is coming off a knockout defeat to Dominick Reyes in his light heavyweight debut back in October. In total, the former middleweight champion has also lost five of his last six outings — all by way of knockout.
The plan for “The All American” is to now return to middleweight for the long term with the UFC still targeting a matchup with Jack Hermansson. Eventually, Weidman hopes to build up a winning streak and clash with Adesanya who he rates very highly:
“I think the guy’s super talented,” Weidman told MMA Fighting. “He’s the new champion. He’s got the star power, and when I’m all said and done with my career, I really want to fight the best guys in the history of the middleweight division. I think I’ve done that, and Israel’s one of those guys I haven’t got to fight yet.
“He’s growing to become one of those guys. [I’m] seeing if he can defend his belt a couple of times, but I’d love to test myself against him. So whoever I’ve got to fight before that to get to a fight like that is definitely motivating.”
Of course, that’s not to say Weidman — currently on a two-fight losing streak — is calling “The Last Stylebender” out. That said, he believes styles make fights and that he is a bad matchup for Adesanya:
“Obviously, I’m coming off losses,” Weidman said. “I don’t want to talk too much, but it is a really good matchup for me. Obviously, I got knocked out by Yoel Romero, and he didn’t, but I engaged a lot more. His other fights, if you compare my fight with Kelvin Gastelum, I pretty much dominated that fight and then finished him. I finished Anderson Silva twice, and he had a close fight with him, too.
“I just think matchup wise, everything is about matchups, and I think I’m a bad matchup for him. A guy who could get him down and control him. I’m very dangerous with submissions as well, and [I could] knock him out at the same time. I would love to get that opportunity, and right now I’m far away, at least in my eyes. I’ve got some serious work to do. But that is the end goal.”
Do you agree with Weidman?