Chris Weidman returns to Atlantic City this coming weekend as he takes on Bruno Silva, with the UFC touching down in A.C for the eleventh time.
The last time the UFC was in ‘America’s Playground’ was back in 2018 when Edson Barboza took on Kevin Lee in the main event, but Weidman wasn’t on that card. In fact, the ‘All American’ hasn’t competed in any of the UFC’s 10 previous events in Atlantic City.
The start of the 39-year-old’s entire MMA career began in A.C., where he’s competed four times for Ring of Combat. The middleweight won all four of those bouts and will be looking to maintain his undefeated record there with a win this coming Saturday.
Chris Weidman‘s last outing came at UFC 292 in August last year, where he was beaten by Brad Tavares via unanimous decision.
Chris Weidman originally saw this as a perfect retirement story
In an interview this past Monday with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, the former middleweight champion admitted that when he originally got the call from the UFC for this fight, he thought it would be a perfect opportunity to retire where he began his career.
“When I got the call, to be honest, the first thing I thought was oh man, that would be a really cool place to hang up the gloves that was probably the first thought, that’s where I started my career, maybe a good place to end my career.” Weidman admitted.
Despite that, the veteran explained that although he has gone through 30 surgeries throughout his career, he began fight camp and felt ‘great’, so quickly changed his mind on the possible retirement.
“As I started training I said let me see how my body feels if I feel like I’m done then I’ll be done, 30 surgeries in you know but I’ve been feeling amazing. I was very open-minded to this being my last (fight), but I don’t see that happening.” Weidman said.
Where Weidman sees his career going from here
Despite even UFC President Dana White previously calling for Weidman (15-7) to retire after multiple career-ending injuries, Weidman and his Serra Longo team believe he could be the best in the world again.
First, though, he has to get through Bruno Silva (23-10) who is also coming in off the back of consecutive defeats. His last fight came against the closely followed, Shara ‘Bullet’ Magomedov, back at UFC 294 in October.
“I’m excited to go out there and I feel great in training. The coaches and I know what it sounds like and I get it, the coaches think that if I wanted to and I had the energy to do it, I could be the best in the world again. I do feel that way.” Weidman admitted.
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