It was not a triumphant return to the Octagon for Chris
Weidman at UFC
292.
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More than two years removed from suffering a gruesome broken leg
against Uriah Hall at
UFC 261 in April 2021, the former middleweight champion struggled
mightily defending low kicks in a unanimous decision loss to
Brad
Tavares on Saturday night at TD Garden in Boston. Even worse
for “The All-American” is that he might have suffered some more
serious injuries in the bout.
At Saturday’s post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White
cited those injuries while urging Weidman to call it a career.
“I love Chris Weidman. I love him. I love his family. I think he
should retire,” White said. “We talked to Dr. [Jeff Davidson]. He
thinks he blew his ACL, MCL … The guy is just coming back from a
gruesome injury and, listen man, Father Time is not our friend at
all. But definitely, if you’re a professional athlete. Depending on
the damage to the knee, you’re talking another year. So I would
say. ‘Chris, I love you. Please, please retire.’”
Weidman has fallen on tough times in recent years. Including his
title bout loss to Luke
Rockhold at UFC 194, the Serra-Longo Fight Team product is just
2-7 in his last nine promotional appearances. According to White,
Weidman has nothing left to prove.
“Weidman reached the pinnacle of the sport and did it in
spectacular fashion, knocking out the greatest of all time
[Anderson
Silva],” White said. “What now? Why? To come back and feel it
one more time. He felt it tonight, and he blew his knee out and
he’s going to have to go through crazy surgery again and recover
from it. It’s just like, why? You’ve done it all. You’ve
accomplished everything that you could hope to accomplish in the
UFC.”