Those who have followed mixed martial arts for any period of time
know that retirements rarely last.
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However, Chris
Weidman’s farewell was short-lived even by MMA standards.
Approximately one week after announcing his retirement ahead of UFC 311,
Weidman was selected in the Global Fight League draft. According to
the former
UFC middleweight champion, it was an opportunity he couldn’t
refuse.
“The elephant in the room is I just retired from the UFC. A lot of
people thought I was done fighting. I didn’t know,” Weidman said on
the GFL draft stream. “I thought maybe I am done fighting. I was
kind of open to other opportunities outside of the UFC, but they
had to be good.”
A lot of that had to do with some of the other athletes who are
currently expected to be part of the fledgling promotion.
“This is a league where there’s a lot of guys that I have a history
with,” Weidman said. “You’ve got Luke
Rockhold, you’ve got Gegard
Mousasi, you’ve got Uriah Hall.
Rockhold was my first loss ever. That was a tough pill for me to
swallow. We were supposed to rematch a whole bunch of times in UFC,
but it never happened. So that would be a fight I’d love to have.
Uriah Hall broke my damn leg in my last fight. He was a gentleman
about it, but we had fought twice.
“… It’s older dudes that I have a lot of history with. I love to
compete and we make a whole lot of money. It’s not something I
really feel like I can say no to. It’s really an exciting time for
me.”
The 40-year-old Weidman dealt with numerous injuries over the
course of his career, including the aforementioned broken leg
suffered against Hall in April 2021. “The All-American” won just
three of his last 11 Octagon appearances. He last fought at UFC
310, where he suffered a second-round TKO defeat to Eryk Anderson
this past December.