Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman suffered 4 devastating knockout losses in his last 5-fights at middleweight, prompting him to move up to light-heavyweight.
Unfortunately for the former champion, he had no more luck at light-heavyweight (LHW) than he did at middleweight.
Weidman faced Dominick Reyes in his LHW debut, quickly getting caught with a powerful punch early in the fight. He lost his debut to Reyes by knockout inside the first 2-minutes of the very 1st round.
Now, the “All-American” is headed back to his former division at middleweight, where he feels “comfortable”.
He recently did an interview with Ariel Helwani, where talked about his move back down to middleweight, suggesting that he might be too small for the light-heavyweight division:
“I do think I have the potential to beat any of them [light heavyweights] but I lost my first fight and I just figured you know what, let me just go where I’m comfortable to try and make sure I get this W and give myself the most advantages as possible.”
Weidman said that he wants to give himself “the most advantages possible” and that he wouldn’t get that at light-heavyweight:
“Size and strength is important, I wouldn’t have as much of an advantage up at 205 with that so, I’m not closing the door on 205 completely, but at this point I’m going to go down to middleweight. My weight is good so it shouldn’t be that bad.” Weidman concluded.
Chris Weidman is now scheduled to face Jack Hermansson at middleweight on May 2, 2020 at UFC Fight Night 174. Going into the fight, Weidman will be desperate to get back in the winning bracket as he is just 1-5 in his last 6 Octagon appearances.
As for Hermansson, he had some serious momentum built up behind him, with 4-straight wins over Thales Leites, Gerald Meerschaert, David Branch and Ronaldo Souza, respectively. Unfortunately for the Swede, he was stopped via strikes in the 2nd round in his last fight against Jared Cannonier at UFC Fight Night 160.
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 19th March, 2020.
Discussion about this post