It’s a funny thing the way the mind works.
Something belongs to one group in your head, another thing belongs to another, and they never cross despite sharing plenty of characteristics that could warrant it.
One might look at a UFC champion like Anthony Pettis or Jose Aldo and have a comment on their inactivity, or perhaps on how that inactivity is robbing fans of huge fights in exciting divisions.
Maybe they’d make a point about how that inactivity is also crippling the respective primes of two of the highest ceilings out there among current mixed martial artists.
Comparably, a fighter like Johny Hendricks or Cain Velasquez is lauded for their championship pedigree. Rarely is inactivity or injury brought up when speaking of them, at least not until the talk of their excellence has died down. Sure they haven’t been fighting much over the past year or so, but their skill and memorable showings last time out kind of overshadow that.
And then there’s Chris Weidman.
Weidman has fought only once in 2014 and won’t see the cage again before next year due to an injury. Only one year in his career has seen him enter the cage more than twice, and he’s been active as a pro since early 2009.
For the man who beat Anderson Silva, that’s a concern.
Inactivity is the exact type of bug that can bite the legacy of a talented combatant with all the tools to become a superstar for the UFC. Weidman has those tools, but he’s risking being the subject of that bite.
Already with the memorable Silva dethroning on his resume, Weidman is the type of well-spoken, marketable individual that can sell. His actions in the cage are nothing short of immaculate, and he’s the only recognized undefeated male champion in the world’s biggest promotion.
Yet no one really looks to him to carry any notable torch.
That’s likely because it’s all well and good to put on one of the best fights of the year, as Weidman did with Lyoto Machida in July, but with so many events coming behind those performances get lost in the shuffle. More than any point in UFC history, a champion needs to get on a roll and keep rolling to gain the momentum of a superstar.
And superstars are what the UFC needs. They need guys to put in ads and on billboards, mostly because the world can only handle so much Ronda Rousey and the endorsement adventures of Jon Jones seem to be going in the wrong direction these days.
That’s why Weidman‘s activity is so crucial, both for his legacy and for the promotion’s marketability. With the issues surrounding Pettis and Aldo, the limited exposure of Hendricks and Velasquez and the total disinterest of the public in any other champion on the roster, he really needs to be out there.
People just aren’t seeing him enough to be reminded of how great he is.
There’s nothing anyone can do about it, either. The nature of the fight game is that some guys are more durable, some guys fight more often and some guys get bigger because of it. Others get hurt, fight less and are forgotten.
For anyone who sees the potential in Weidman though, and rest assured the UFC does, there’s reason to hope he heads down the path back to regular competition soon. If he doesn’t, he risks becoming just another face in the crowd, and there’s nothing worse in a sport as unforgiving as MMA.
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