The former UFC middleweight champion says he wasn’t close to being 100 percent against Luke Rockhold at UFC 194.
While Chris Weidman engaged with Luke Rockhold in a very competitive fight at UFC 194, “The All-American” was beaten to a bloody pulp in the fourth round. Weidman stood toe-to-toe with Rockhold for the majority of the bout but things took a turn for the worse when the 31-year-old missed a spinning back kick in the third round. His opponent capitalized on the mistake and overwhelmed him with a barrage of ground and pound from full mount.
It marked the first blemish on Weidman’s professional MMA career and the Serra-Longo product will look to avenge his loss in the immediate rematch at UFC 199.
Weidman credits Rockhold for his stellar performance but feels he was only 10 to 20 percent going into the fight. The former middleweight champion spoke to Inside MMA correspondent Ron Kruck last week to discuss the loss (transcripts via Kristian Ibarra of Today’s Knockout).
“It wasn’t my night, it was his night and he deserved to win that fight,” Weidman told AXS TV. “He’s a guy I’m very capable of just completely running through. I was at maybe 10 to 20 percent of me and I was still kicking his ass for a while in there. I wasn’t where I should have been at mentally and physically, I’ll just put it at that.
“I don’t like to make excuses. Listen, I’ll just say this: It was the worst camp I ever had. A lot of things were going on. But what I felt in there was a weak guy [in Rockhold] who was ready to break before it all went downhill for me with that spinning back kick.”
Weidman (13-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) will try to reclaim the middleweight championship when he takes on Luke Rockhold at the UFC 199 pay-per-view in June.