Chris Weidman Says He Deserves Next Middleweight Title Shot
Former UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman has won just one of his last four under the UFC banner, with that lone win coming over Kelvin Gastelum at UFC On Fox 25.
Despite the lack of Octagon success as of late, a confident Weidman believes that he deserves the next shot at UFC Middleweight Champion Robert Whittaker.
“Fighting Whittaker, that’s a guy I match up well with and that’s a guy I feel I can go out there and finish,” Weidman said on The MMA Hour. “I feel I am the most decorated guy in the division, I’ve had the most title defenses. I had a rough patch, I went undefeated my whole career, I lost one, happened to lose three in a row. My mind, I felt like it wasn’t in the right spot. I came back, got myself where I needed to be, got my mind back and I went out there and beat one of the top contenders, Kelvin Gastelum. I feel like I dominated the fight and went out there and finished him. I feel like you’re only as good as your last fight and I finished the other guy that we’re talking about in my last fight. I think I definitely deserve shot at the title. It will be a good fight.”
Weidman won the middleweight title with a knockout victory over Anderson Silva at UFC 168 and would defend it three times before losing to Luke Rockhold at UFC 194.
The fighter has won an aforementioned one of the last four in the UFC, but Weidman doesn’t want people focusing on that part of his UFC run.
“If you’re going to start doing that, you are picking what is the worst look for me,” Weidman said. “If you’re going to go back, look at my whole career. If you’re going to start with my first losses, it’s going to look bad. But if you look at my whole career, I’ve fought only the best guys in the world since I’ve been in UFC and I’ve done pretty damn good, have the most title defenses and I went through a little rough patch and I climbed my way out of it, I didn’t have any rough patches before that.”
There is no word at this time as to whom the next title shot will go to, as Whittaker just came off of a non-title bout against Yoel Romero at UFC 225.
