Chris Weidman

Christopher James Weidman (born June 17, 1984) is an American professional mixed martial artist. He competed in the Middleweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former UFC Middleweight Champion.

An accomplished amateur wrestler, Weidman was a two-time NJCAA All-American and a two-time NCAA Division I All-American during his collegiate career. He began his mixed martial arts career in 2008, and joined the UFC in 2011, soon amassing a 9–0 record. In 2013, Weidman came to worldwide prominence by defeating Anderson Silva to win the UFC Middleweight Championship. This ended Silva's 16-fight winning streak inside the UFC and his seven-year reign as the champion. Weidman retained the title for two and a half years, defending it three times.

Background

Weidman was born in Baldwin, New York, on June 17, 1984, the second of three children. He is of German and Irish descent and was raised as a Lutheran. He and his older brother were involved in numerous athletic activities. Chris started wrestling at a very young age. With his natural athleticism, he mastered the sport very quickly. He attended Baldwin Senior High School on Long Island where he was a Nassau County and New York state wrestling champion.

A standout in college, he earned All-American wrestling honors twice at Nassau Community College before transferring to Hofstra. He became the first junior college wrestler in history to be an NYS Collegiate Champion. At Hofstra, he became a two-time NCAA Division I All-American, placing sixth at the 2006 NCAA championships his junior year and third at the 2007 NCAA's his senior year. Weidman graduated from Hofstra University with a bachelor's degree in psychology as well as a master’s in physical education. He was later a wrestling instructor of the university.

Training

While attending Hofstra, Weidman met Gabriel "Monsta" Toribio, who invited Weidman to come to Matt and Nick Serra's BJJ Academy a few miles from campus in Levittown, New York to help some of the fighters with their wrestling. Weidman also took some submission grappling classes and within three months he competed in and won The East Coast Grappler's Quest in his weight class and the Absolute Division with all 13 matches ending in submissions.

With full-time assistant coaching and graduate school at Hofstra, grappling had to be put on hold for a while. While coaching, Weidman trained for the Olympic trials. When his dream was not attained, Weidman had to decide if he wanted to continue training for the world teams and Olympics or give MMA a shot. Toribio brought Weidman to Ray Longo's MMA Academy and introduced Weidman to Longo. With his noticeable technique and skills, Weidman was encouraged to train full-time to fight. In 2011, Longo and Weidman LAW MMA opened, where they are instructors, owners, and operators in Garden City, New York.

After winning the ADCC East Coast Trials, Weidman qualified for and competed at the 2009 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship (with one year of formal submission grappling training) in Barcelona where he lost in a quarter-final match-up.

In May 2015, Weidman got a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from Renzo Gracie and Matt Serra.

Mixed martial arts career

Ring of Combat

Weidman made his MMA professional debut representing the Serra-Longo Fight Team in February 2009 in Louis Neglia's Ring of Combat 23. He fought as a Middleweight against Reuben Lopes, whom he submitted quickly via kimura, at 1:35 of the first round. Two months later at Ring of Combat 24, he stopped Mike Stewart with punches in the first round.

In his third bout, Weidman won the Ring of Combat middleweight title on September 24, 2010, by defeating Uriah Hall at Ring of Combat 31 via punches in the first round. Weidman defended the ROC Middleweight Championship on December 3, 2010, at Ring of Combat 33 with an impressive victory over Valdir Araujo via unanimous decision. By this point Weidman was being called "one of the most highly-touted blue chip middleweight prospects ever". Weidman was offered contracts by numerous organizations, but Weidman elected to wait until the UFC offered him a contract, which he quickly accepted.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

Weidman made his UFC debut against Alessio Sakara on March 3, 2011, at UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann, replacing an injured Rafael Natal. Weidman, who took the fight on two weeks' notice and who was also nursing a rib injury, won a unanimous decision, scoring a decisive 30–27 on all three judges' scorecards.

Weidman faced Jesse Bongfeldt on June 11, 2011, at UFC 131, replacing an injured Court McGee. Weidman defeated Bongfeldt via first round standing guillotine choke, earning $70,000 "Submission of the Night" honors.

Weidman next faced Tom Lawlor on November 19, 2011, at UFC 139. He won the fight via technical submission, rendering Lawlor unconscious with a D'Arce choke in the first round.

Weidman defeated Demian Maia by unanimous decision (29–28, 30–27, and 29–28) on January 28, 2012, at UFC on Fox 2. The fight was initially announced as a split decision but the judges actually scored it as a unanimous decision, clarified by UFC President Dana White in a tweet. Weidman replaced Michael Bisping on eleven days' notice after Mark Muñoz was forced out of his fight with Chael Sonnen. Bisping was chosen to take Munoz's place in the co-main event.

Weidman faced Mark Muñoz on July 11, 2012, at UFC on Fuel TV: Muñoz vs. Weidman. Weidman dominated Munoz throughout first round using his wrestling skills. In the second round, he knocked out Munoz with a counter elbow to the forehead followed by ground and pound to an unconscious Munoz, which awarded Weidman "Knockout of the Night" honors. After the fight, Weidman expressed a desire to fight Anderson Silva and become the middleweight title holder.

Weidman was expected to fight Tim Boetsch on December 29, 2012, at UFC 155. However, Weidman pulled out of the bout due to an injury and was replaced by Costas Philippou.

UFC Middleweight Champion

After nearly a year out of competition due to injury and Hurricane Sandy, on July 6, 2013, Weidman faced Anderson Silva for the UFC Middleweight title in UFC 162 before a crowd of 12,399 spectators at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Bookmakers rated Weidman a 2–1 underdog; however, numerous pundits and fighters including long-reigning UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, picked Weidman to upset the long-reigning middleweight champion:

I believe it's a bad matchup for Anderson Silva. Very bad, style-wise. Anderson's weaknesses are Weidman's strengths. I've trained with Weidman, and his wrestling is on another level. Not only is Chris Weidman going to beat Anderson Silva, I believe he's going to finish Anderson. I believe it's not going to last too long, this fight. This fight will shock a lot of people.

As St-Pierre predicted, Weidman knocked out Silva early in the second round with another "Knockout of the Night" performance to become the new UFC Middleweight Champion. In the first round, Weidman took down the champion onto the canvas to apply some solid ground-and-pound. The second round saw Silva taunting and mocking Weidman until he was caught and dropped by Weidman's left hook which was followed with punches to the grounded Silva — rendering him unconscious. The loss to Weidman was Silva's first in the UFC and ended his seven-year, 17-fight undefeated streak. The KO victory gave Weidman the distinction of being the first person to have ever knocked out Silva in a mixed martial arts match. In honor of Weidman's victory, Nassau County proclaimed July seventeenth "Chris Weidman Day". Mixed Martial Arts website Sherdog also declared Weidman's knockout of Anderson Silva as "Knockout of the Year" for 2013.

On July 13, 2013, the UFC President Dana White announced that Weidman would rematch Silva for his first title defense at UFC 168. Silva once again opened as the betting favorite.

At UFC 168 on December 28, 2013, Weidman defended his title against Anderson Silva. In contrast to their first fight in UFC 162, there was no overt showboating by Silva, yet Weidman still had Silva in trouble early in the first round by dropping him — while in the clinch — with a right hook to the side of the head — followed by a barrage of punches. In spite of Weidman's onslaught, Silva managed to pull guard, regain his composure and bloodied Weidman's nose with some elbows and hammer-fist punches off his back. Weidman, however, controlled the top position for the remainder of the round and landed punches and elbows. At the start of the second round, Silva attacked Weidman with a series of kicks including a heavy inside low kick which Weidman checked with his left knee. This check snapped Silva's left fibula and tibia on contact. Silva immediately fell to the mat, forcing referee Herb Dean to stop the fight 1:16 into the second round and give Weidman the victory by TKO. Low kicks were some of Silva's most effective strikes in their first encounter, which led Weidman to focus on defending against them for the rematch.