Tag: Chris Weidman

Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman says he was all for fighting Khamzat Chimaev later this year before a rib injury derailed those plans.

Chimaev burst onto the scene earlier this year and has since picked up three emphatic wins and a load of fans. The undefeated prospect is receiving a huge push from the UFC brass who have slated him in a headline slot against welterweight #3 Leon Edwards on December 19.

For a while, the Swedish fighter was struggling to find an opponent. Chimaev took to Twitter and accused Weidman of turning down the opportunity to headline alongside him.

In a recent interview with Submission Radio Weidman explained that he initially accepted a fight with Chimaev before realizing he wouldn’t be 100 percent fit until early next year.

“They offered me Chimaev, I said yes. Then I started getting really excited about it, and then I said, well, so I got a little bit of a rib injury right now, a cartilage rib injury. And if you’re anybody who’s had that, it’s just a pain in the ass,” Weidman said. “You’ve got to be really careful with not reinjuring it or bothering it. So, I’ve kinda gotta work around that right now. So, I told them, I’m down to fight whoever at mid-January, but I really want that Chimaev fight. Just because of everyone acting as if everyone is scared of him and all that, and to me, I always want to fight the best guys. And so, if everybody thinks he’s that good, let’s see it. And I have a hard time imagining anybody throwing me around. In any of my losses, it wasn’t like a dominant win, it was, holy crap, out of nowhere, and fights that I was winning, other than my Reyes fight. And so, I just have a hard time seeing anybody manhandling me and throwing me around. I just can’t imagine that happening. So, I would love to see that if that’s what everybody thinks that he could do. So, that kind of excited me. But next thing I know, he’s fighting the number three guy at welterweight. So, obviously my fight with him is probably not gonna be happening anytime soon, if I had to guess.”

Do you still want to see Chris Weidman vs. Khamzat Chimaev?

Former UFC Middleweight champion Chris Weidman has called out rising star Khamzat Chimaev, citing he needs to be humbled and that he’s willing to provide to do just that in January.

Chimaev, the breakout star of the UFC in 2020 has been on a dominant path, most recently knocking out Gerald Meerschaert last month.

Chimaev had initially claimed that Weidman turned down an offer from the company to fight him.

“I just want to let my fans know and the people who support me, the UFC offer me ‘Wonderboy'[Stephen Thompson] and he turned it down at 170, and also Chris Weidman at 185 who also turned it down,” Chimaev wrote on Twitter last week. “I’m coming for everyone.”

Despite this claim, Weidman now seems interested in the fight.

On Friday morning, Weidman took to Twitter, where he claimed Chimaev is in need of a humbling beatdown and offered to provide that lesson in January.

“This guy Chimaev needs some humbling,” Weidman wrote Twitter. “Would love to do that. January I’m in! UFC make this happen.”

Certainly would seem to be a main event worthy fight night bout.

How would you see a January fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Chris Weidman playing out? Does this interest you?