Chris Weidman isn’t a believer in tuneup fights. The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight title holder lost his first two bouts in the span of 11 months. Both defeats were bloody finishes.
“All-American” lost his championship to Luke Rockhold back in Dec. 2015 by TKO in the fourth round. He looked to rebound at UFC 205 inside Madison Square Garden in New York City. Unfortunately for Weidman, he took a nasty flying knee to the side of the head courtesy of Yoel Romero.
The two losses haven’t deterred the former champion from competing against the 185-pound division’s best. He will begin his 2017 campaign against Gegard Mousasi at UFC 210 in Buffalo.
“All-American” recently appeared on “The MMA Hour” (via MMAMania.com). He said he prides himself on throwing leather with the best the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) has to offer.
“I want to get that belt back, and fighting the toughest guys in the division is the way to do that. I don’t take that last loss and think, ‘I need to beat some guy who is not on my level to get my confidence back.’ I know exactly what I did wrong in that last fight and what I have to do differently, so I don’t have to fight any of those guys to get my confidence level up. I’m just as confident as I was. I feel like Mousasi is a great fight for me to get back on my winning ways and get closer to fighting for the title again.”
UFC 210 will be held inside the KeyBank Center on April 8. No other fights have been revealed for the card at this time.
This will be the fourth New York event the UFC has put together since the state’s ban of MMA was lifted. The first being UFC 205, the second was a Fight Night card in Albany, and the third will be UFC 208 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.
