Chris Weidman‘s wish may finally be coming true in July.
UFC President Dana White revealed on Thursday, when speaking to reporters following the end of the UFC 157 pre-fight press conference, that the promotion has started preliminary talks to pit Weidman against UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva in July.
Now it has to be noted that the deal is not done, and nothing is signed at this stage of negotiations, but UFC officials have begun discussions between Silva and Weidman to hopefully put the fight together for later this year.
“That’s what we want, but no we don’t have it yet,” White told reporters on Thursday about ongoing negotiations for Silva vs. Weidman. “We’ve been talking to (Anderson Silva). It’s not done, we’ll get it done.”
Chris Weidman has made a grand amount of noise over the last eight months about getting his shot at Anderson Silva and the middleweight title. Following his blistering win over Mark Munoz last July, Weidman seemed poised as the next contender at 185 pounds, but at the time, Silva’s camp showed little interest in him because of the extreme difference in experience between the newcomer and the incumbent champion.
Still, as other middleweight contenders fell by the wayside, Weidman‘s name stayed right in the dead center of relevancy, and he was poised to jump on the opportunity to face Silva should it arise.
Currently, Weidman is still nursing his injured shoulder that required surgery, forcing him out of his last scheduled fight against Tim Boetsch in December 2012.
It appears, however, with his shoulder on the mend and rehabilitation underway, the UFC is willing to start putting together the framework for Weidman to receive his shot at Anderson Silva in July.
Silva has been out of action since stepping up on short notice last October to help save UFC 153 in his home country of Brazil after injuries decimated the top half of the card. The most dominant champion in UFC history obliterated light heavyweight Stephan Bonnar in the first round to get a win and once again cement his place as the greatest fighter in the world.
It looks like Silva’s next fight will be his return to middleweight, where he will try to extend his already record-shattering streak of title defenses, which currently stands at 10.
Damon Martin is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand, unless otherwise noted.
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