Chris Weidman: I’m a bad matchup for Israel Adesanya, and Jan Blachowicz loss proves it
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Chris Weidman’s UFC title aspirations are still strong.
The former UFC middleweight champion is not ready to turn the page on title contention and said a few things have transpired in recent weeks that reaffirmed his conviction that there’s still a chance to reclaim UFC gold in the late stages of his career.
Weidman (15-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) returns to the octagon this Saturday, when he takes on Uriah Hall (16-9 MMA, 9-7 UFC) on the main card of UFC 261. The 36-year-old hopes to pick up his second straight win in efforts to make one last run at the belt.
“I want to go out there and let the fans choose when they want me to fight (for the title), and I have to do that by making some big statements,” Weidman told reporters, including MMA Junkie at Wednesday’s media day. “I don’t expect it to be right after this Uriah Hall fight. I expect to fight another big name after that, and if it takes another one, it takes another one.
“But I think win two fights in spectacular fashion and I get to show my potential, I think people are going to want to see me fight for the title.”
A few weeks back at UFC 259, UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was handed his first professional defeat, losing a decision in a light heavyweight title fight against champion Jan Blachowicz.
It was a fight where the much bigger Blachowicz was able to use his size and wrestling to outpoint the Nigerian-born champ. Weidman liked what he saw in that title bout and is confident he can do the same to Adesanya.
“Seeing that fight, seeing how a strong guy was able to out-grapple him and get the takedowns, it definitely reaffirmed the thoughts that I had on that fight,” Weidman said. “That being said, I have some work to do. I got Uriah Hall. I don’t expect to be fighting Adesanya next. I do know I’m bad matchup for him, and when I’m able to prove it to everybody, people are going to want to see it”
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Weidman is looking forward to prove he’s still a force to be reckoned with at 185 pounds when he steps in the octagon against Hall in a rematch more than 10 years in the making. “The All-American” is 2-5 in his last seven UFC outings but feels that will soon change since he’s made the necessary changes to build on his win over Omari Akhmedov last August.
“I think I have all the potential in the world,” Weidman explained. “I just need to do the right thing. For a long time, I got away from working the way I should be working. I wasn’t in the gym all the time. I was cutting a lot of corners as opposed of doing as much work as possible. I was looking to do as little work as possible, and it was working for me for a couple of fights that I was winning.
“So it kind of gave me positive reinforcement into some bad habits. I think getting out of my environment which I was accustomed to and with the habits that I had, even just moving allowed me to fall in love with the sport again and just being in the gym to learn. I haven’t left the gym. I’ve been in the gym non-stop and that hasn’t happened since like before my (Lyoto) Machida fight. That’s the last time I was doing that. And for the Vitor fight that’s when I started slacking on my training.”
