Chris Weidman has dealt with bigger problems than Anderson Silva

The telephone rang shortly before Chris Weidman sat down to eat dinner with his family. It was a cold winter's afternoon in New York.

Weidman was showing promise as a mixed martial arts fighter, but his career had yet to take off. No one on this January afternoon was picking him to be the guy who might one day end the great Anderson Silva's lengthy reign as UFC middleweight champion.

He weighed 217 pounds before he sat down to eat. A few moments earlier, he'd received a note from his accountant. His tax bill was going to be a bit higher than he expected; he could use a quick infusion of cash.

Trainer Ray Longo was on the other end of the line, with the news that the UFC had offered him a fight with Demian Maia. The only hitch was that the fight would be in 10 days, and that meant cramming more than two months of work into 10 days.

A match with Maia would be, Weidman understood, by far the most significant of his career. A good performance and Weidman knew he could change from promising prospect to title contender in an instant.

UFC officials realized the difficulty of what they'd asked Weidman to do, acknowledging there wasn't much time to prepare for a tricky opponent, nor to cut the weight to reach the contract limit 186 pounds.

Longo repeated that there would be no repercussions if he said no.

Weidman accepted the fight, almost against his better judgment, and then sat down to eat a meal that, when it was over, probably put him 35 or 36 pounds over his target with 10 days to make it.

"It was miserable, man," Weidman said of those days he spent trying to make weight to be able to fight Maia. "Just absolutely miserable."

It would get far more miserable before it got better.

Some say Weidman is in for a miserable time on Saturday, when he challenges Silva for the middleweight title in the main event of UFC 162 at the MGM Grand Garden.

Silva is widely regarded as the greatest fighter of all-time, and had been champion for almost three years before Weidman turned pro.

Weidman is well aware of what he's in for Saturday when he steps into the cage.

"Anderson Silva is an incredible fighter, and of course I was a fan of his," Weidman said. "Look at what he's done. How can any sports fan not appreciate that?"

Weidman, though, won't be in awe. He may not win, though he believes to his core that he will. Silva, though, can rest assured he'll see the best of whatever it is that Weidman has that night.

He proved himself as championship material in that Jan. 28, 2012, bout with Maia, his first fight with a ranked opponent. Almost as soon as he began the process of shedding the 30-some pounds he needed to lose in 10 days, he had to divert his attention to a family tragedy.

A day, maybe two after he took the fight – Weidman said he's bad with such things – his uncle, Freddy, died tragically in a fall at home.

They'd had an extremely close relationship and spent plenty of time alone together on Freddy Weidman's boat. Freddy Weidman was a decorated Vietnam veteran and a huge supporter of his nephew's fight career.

"Just a tough, humble, hard-working guy," Weidman said of his uncle.

Freddy Weidman was fighting Rheumatoid arthritis, and was taking painkillers to relieve his pain. He was walking in his home at night and somehow managed to fall down the stairs, his face plowing into the ground, killing him.

The next day, Weidman was among a group of family designated to clean the pool of blood that collected at the bottom of the stairs.

Despite his uncle's death, Weidman forged on. He was so far over weight, he was subsisting on a spoon full of peanut butter a day. He got delirious as he was working out.

"Let's just say, I wasn't all there," Weidman said.

Fighters talk all the time about overcoming adversity, but rarely is it this kind of adversity. Despite everything, he went on to make weight, beat Maia and cement his status as one of the UFC's bright stars.

He simply cemented that impression with a second-round finish of Mark Munoz on July 11, 2012, a victory that earned him the title shot.

But it was that Maia fight which spoke volumes about Weidman. It would have been easy to say no, to give up, but he never did. Even in the most difficult moments, he didn't lose sight of what he was there to do.

And that's why it makes him so dangerous an opponent for Silva on Saturday.

"Chris is so mentally strong, it's almost difficult to explain," said Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson, a UFC welterweight who trained with Weidman to help prepare him for Silva. "He knows he has everything he needs to win this fight and everything he does is with winning in mind."

Weidman hasn't fought since that Munoz fight after his home was devastated in Hurricane Sandy. Though much progress has been made, it's still not totally repaired, he said.

Weidman spent plenty of time dealing with the issues caused by the hurricane, but said whatever is happening in his personal life won't have an impact on his professional life.

"I'm just kind of a happy-go-lucky guy and I don't really sulk or feel sorry for myself," he said. "There are so many people so much worse off than me, that had so many things happen to them that I couldn't imagine going through.

"There hasn't been a time when I've felt badly for myself. There have been some tough times, but I'm young and I have a long life ahead of me. I'm blessed to have it and I'm not down in spirit or anything like that."