Chris Weidman recounts the time he got into a street fight with New York gangsters

Before he made it in the UFC, Chris Weidman found himself being dragged into streetfights by his friends. Here’s one of those stories.

Chris Weidman is a legitimate New York badass, born and bred in Long Island. So we imagine he’s got a decent amount of war stories from his time growing up amongst tough guys, both real and wannabe. Now he’s sharing one of those stories with Champions.co where he writes occasional columns.

The way he tells it, everyone was having a nice innocent night out until his friend and fellow UFC fighter Gian Villante picked a fight with some mean looking gangster types. Take it away, Chris:

I was maybe 2-0 as a pro, and Villante and I were at a club with some friends, when some major juiceheads walked in. These three guys were real wannabe gangsters, wearing big chains, dressed up like pretend drug dealers or something. But they were big dudes, like 6’4,” 270, and they started stone-facing everyone, shouldering people as they took a lap to circle around the club.

Villante and I weren’t really feeling these guys, and when they walked passed our table, he slapped the biggest guy on the back and says “hey buddy, relax, have a good time tonight,” in a real sarcastic tone. “Big juicehead” was is shock that Villante would have such nerve.

Villante kept harassing the guys, to the point where Weidman was called outside the club to save him from getting jumped by the whole gang. When he emerged, he found Villante getting into a car with the gangsters so they could drive somewhere to fight. Things escalated quickly from there and Weidman found himself in a fight with one of them.

He threw the punch and I just covered up. Then, I went for an underhook, and I knee picked him down to the ground. As I knee picked him, he pulled my shirt, and now he’s on his back and I’m just standing over him. Instead of throwing punches to a grounded opponent, I just started slapping him around a bit: backhand, slap across the face, backhand, into my forehand. I even gave him a noogie and just laughed; the bouncers eventually pulled me off, but everyone was laughing by now.

The embarrassment definitely got to him. He stood back up and went for an encore: same punch, instant replay, blocked punch, underhook, knee pick, noogie. This time I pulled and honked his nose, embarrassing him further, and the whole time, his big juicehead friends just watched their buddy get pummeled.

I just went up to them and said “you gotta get in your car right now, or you’re gonna get your ass beat,” and they just vanished.

I don’t get in too many situations like this any more. I have a wife and three kids, so evenings out with Villante are rare. Plus, fighting is my career at this point, so I stay away from altercations unless I get paid for them, but at least I know that wrestling is still useful in a whole number of real-life scenarios.

Even more useful than wrestling? Not having a friend like Gian Villante who drags you into streetfights with large groups of shady people. As great of a story this makes in retrospect, Chris could have gotten stabbed! He could have been arrested! Yeah, I know I sound like Weidman’s mom or something, but it’s obviously always better to avoid getting yourself into situations like this.

Okay, enough buzzkill hand wringing. Make sure to check out Chris Weidman’s full account of the incident, because it is pretty funny. Now that we know he didn’t get shanked over it.

Before he made it in the UFC, Chris Weidman found himself being dragged into streetfights by his friends. Here’s one of those stories.

Chris Weidman is a legitimate New York badass, born and bred in Long Island. So we imagine he’s got a decent amount of war stories from his time growing up amongst tough guys, both real and wannabe. Now he’s sharing one of those stories with Champions.co where he writes occasional columns.

The way he tells it, everyone was having a nice innocent night out until his friend and fellow UFC fighter Gian Villante picked a fight with some mean looking gangster types. Take it away, Chris:

I was maybe 2-0 as a pro, and Villante and I were at a club with some friends, when some major juiceheads walked in. These three guys were real wannabe gangsters, wearing big chains, dressed up like pretend drug dealers or something. But they were big dudes, like 6’4,” 270, and they started stone-facing everyone, shouldering people as they took a lap to circle around the club.

Villante and I weren’t really feeling these guys, and when they walked passed our table, he slapped the biggest guy on the back and says “hey buddy, relax, have a good time tonight,” in a real sarcastic tone. “Big juicehead” was is shock that Villante would have such nerve.

Villante kept harassing the guys, to the point where Weidman was called outside the club to save him from getting jumped by the whole gang. When he emerged, he found Villante getting into a car with the gangsters so they could drive somewhere to fight. Things escalated quickly from there and Weidman found himself in a fight with one of them.

He threw the punch and I just covered up. Then, I went for an underhook, and I knee picked him down to the ground. As I knee picked him, he pulled my shirt, and now he’s on his back and I’m just standing over him. Instead of throwing punches to a grounded opponent, I just started slapping him around a bit: backhand, slap across the face, backhand, into my forehand. I even gave him a noogie and just laughed; the bouncers eventually pulled me off, but everyone was laughing by now.

The embarrassment definitely got to him. He stood back up and went for an encore: same punch, instant replay, blocked punch, underhook, knee pick, noogie. This time I pulled and honked his nose, embarrassing him further, and the whole time, his big juicehead friends just watched their buddy get pummeled.

I just went up to them and said “you gotta get in your car right now, or you’re gonna get your ass beat,” and they just vanished.

I don’t get in too many situations like this any more. I have a wife and three kids, so evenings out with Villante are rare. Plus, fighting is my career at this point, so I stay away from altercations unless I get paid for them, but at least I know that wrestling is still useful in a whole number of real-life scenarios.

Even more useful than wrestling? Not having a friend like Gian Villante who drags you into streetfights with large groups of shady people. As great of a story this makes in retrospect, Chris could have gotten stabbed! He could have been arrested! Yeah, I know I sound like Weidman’s mom or something, but it’s obviously always better to avoid getting yourself into situations like this.

Okay, enough buzzkill hand wringing. Make sure to check out Chris Weidman’s full account of the incident, because it is pretty funny. Now that we know he didn’t get shanked over it.