Chris Weidman Has Successful Neck Surgery

Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman underwent successful neck surgery Wednesday, by Dr. K. Daniel Riew who allowed Weidman to return home that same night according to MMA Fighting.

Weidman is set to begin physical therapy and strength training Thursday, and will be allowed to participate in ‘hard sparring’ in a matter of six weeks. In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Wiedman described the surgery prior to going under the knife:

“Literally I an get back to training pretty much right away,” Weidman said. “The only issue is I’ll have a scar. So they’ll clean it up, and I just have to wait for the scar to heal and that’s about it. I can go right to strength training and stuff like that right away. And I guess after four weeks I can go into full out everything.”

“I mean, everybody’s just concerned about my well-being right now,” he said. “Obviously I want to fight for the belt, but the main thing is I get my neck taken care of.”

Weidman was originally set to rematch Luke Rockhold, for the title he lost in December, in the main-event of UFC 199 this past Saturday. The former 185-pound champion, however, was forced to pull out of the bout due to his neck injury and the title opportunity was given to Michael Bisping.

Bisping would go on to knockout Rockhold in the first round of their title bout, taking home his first UFC title in his ten year career with the promotion. Weidman would immediately campaign for a bout against the new champion in the UFC’s first event at Madison Square Garden this November:

Mann… Congrats to Bisping. I'll be waiting in MSG for you to hand me over that belt. Good job.

— Chris Weidman (@chrisweidman) June 5, 2016

Will Weidman be granted an immediate title opportunity upon his return? How do you see a potential bout between Wiedman and Bisping going down?