Prior to his controversial win at UFC Atlantic City this past Saturday, Chris Weidman admitted that he was considering retiring in Atlantic City.
Despite that, the 39-year-old explained before the fight how he had felt great throughout his fight camp and so wasn’t going to retire on Saturday, no matter what the result would’ve been.
The result though was a sloppy one. After several eye-pokes throughout the fight, Chris Weidman ended up finishing Bruno Silva with a double eye-poke combination, which was then overturned to a decision win and not a TKO.
Let’s take a look at some potential opponents for the former middleweight champion.
Chris Weidman vs Andre Muniz
Initially, my pick would’ve been Weidman vs Paul Craig, but the Scotsman is facing Caio Borralho at UFC 301 in May, and if Borralho wins that fight, I don’t need to see Weidman vs Borralho.
Andre Muniz is still a solid fighter in the 185lb division and although he is 1-2 in his last three fights, this is the sort of level Weidman should be fighting at, at this stage in his career.
Although the ‘All American’ believes he could have one more title run in him, I didn’t see enough from the veteran on Saturday night to suggest that’s the case. Weidman should really only consider fun matchups from here on out, considering he is long in the tooth.
Muniz’s last win was a bounce-back win against ‘The Iron Turtle’ Jun Yong Park, and the Brazilian could pose a fun stylistic matchup for Weidman.
Chris Weidman vs Nursulton Ruziboev
This could be contested for the eye-poke championship, as Nursulton Ruziboev also picked up a win at UFC Atlantic City this past Saturday, with his finish starting with a poke in the eye of Sedriques Dumas.
All jokes aside, Weidman is likely just outside of the top 15, and being a big name in the division, this could be a fight the UFC looks to put together, to see if Ruziboev can get close to the rankings.
Although I don’t entirely love this matchup for Weidman, it could make sense when considering both fighters’ positions. If Weidman was able to stop the win streak of the Uzbek, then he could consider a fight inside the rankings again.
Chris Weidman vs Edmen Shahbazyan
This is the fight I think I like the most for both of these middleweights.
Edmen Shahbazyan was seen as one of the best prospects at 185lbs when he was undefeated at 11-0. After the UFC decided to throw him amongst the sharks too early in his UFC tenure, the 26-year-old ended up going on a losing skid against top-level opponents.
‘The Golden Boy’ bounced back recently though with a win against AJ Dobson and will be looking to string together some more big wins off the back of that.
This would be a good fight stylistically that would make sense for both fighters as they look to break into the top 15 once again.
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