Chris Weidman Looking To Make Statement Against Belfort

Targeted as the next middleweight title fight since his second victory over Anderson Silva back at UFC 168, Chris Weidman’s long-held rivalry with veteran Vitor Belfort has seen an absurd amount of twists, turns, and reschedulings.

It was first set to happen at UFC 173 a year ago, but ‘The Phenom’ failed a February 2014 drug test in the midst of the Nevada Athletic Commission’s ban of his controversial testosterone-replacement therapy (TRT). Weidman instead took on and defeated Lyoto Machida at UFC 175 after a knee injury forced him to push the bout back a bit, and his fight with Belfort was supposedly back on.

‘The Phenom’ got licensed by the NAC and his bout with Weidman was set to headline December 2014’s blockbuster UFC 181 card, but yet again ‘The All-American’ withdrew with a torn hand ligament that required yet another surgery. Thankfully Weidman wouldn’t be out long, and the fight was rescheduled yet again for February 28’s UFC 184 from Los Angeles.

Another wrench was thrown into the gears, however, as a rib injury suffered in training forced Weidman out yet again, causing the circumstances of the elusive bout to be borderline absurd.

Weidman and Belfort will finally throw down (hopefully) in the co-main event of next week’s (May 23, 2015) massive UFC 187 pay-per-view (PPV) from Las Vegas, and the two rivals joined main event participants Anthony Johnson and Daniel Cormier on a UFC 187 media conference call yesterday.

During the call, Weidman said that with Machida being offered an interim title bout against Belfort, he was a bit worried his fight with the Brazilian veteran would never come to fruition. Now that it’s happening, he fully expects to meet the best version of Belfort next weekend (quotes via Sherdog):

“Probably at some point I was worried [the fight wouldn’t occur] because there was talks of an interim title and him possibly fighting someone else. But this guy is on a three-fight winning streak; people tend to forget about that because of his long layoff. But I expect to be facing the best Vitor Belfort. I knew that at some point we were going to face each other. It was inevitable.”

As for all of his injuries, Weidman said that his ribs are healed, and he’s planning on coming back even stronger with no signs of ring rust after his long layoff on May 23:

“We’re in a tough sport; we’re always kind of coming back from injuries. It’s like my wrestling background where you get hurt and then become stronger from it. I hurt my ribs but they healed pretty fast. I had no issues in training camp with the ribs, and I’m not worried about my ribs or any ring rust.”

Hopefully his ailments are a thing of the past for now, because the champ has proven to be one of the best fighters in the world when he is able to make it to the cage. He’s certainly planning on it, and he’s also bringing the same mentality he brought into his history-making knockout of Silva at 2013’s UFC 162:

“My goal every time out is to try and separate myself from the division and make a statement to the world. I like to prove to myself where my abilities are and [see] what my coaches think. I’m ready for this fight to make a statement and I’m looking for a finish.

“I’ve been off for a while and I have been working on a lot of things. I have a lot of new techniques, many new magic tricks to bring to this game. I’m excited and comfortable enough to try them out in the Octagon. I’ve been practicing them a lot in sparring and in training, to bring it to another level, and I want to do it front of millions when a lot’s on the line.”

Photo Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports