Despite being 1-5 in his last six fights, and losing his last two bouts by way of knockout, former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman has no intention of hanging up the gloves anytime soon.
In fact, the Serra-Longo product would like a rematch with Luke Rockhold who, like Weidman, has struggled to find his groove since losing the middleweight title to Michael Bisping back in 2016.
With both men on similar career trajectories, Weidman believes the timing would be perfect for a rematch, but only after ‘All-American’ has accepted a tune-up fight first.
“Rockhold, I’d like to fight him but not this next fight, I’ll take a tune-up fight,” Weidman said on a recent edition of the MMA and Beyond podcast (h/t Abhinav Kini of The Body Lock MMA). “I still think he’s good. Obviously, people say he doesn’t have a chin anymore but they say that about me too. I still think he’s a tough opponent.”
“I haven’t had a tune-up fight in my career,” he added. “My last 11 or 12 guys are top five in the world. I’ve been [in] main events and on the main card since my first fight in the UFC.”
If the rematch does materalize, Weidman doesn’t really care whether they fight at middleweight or light heavyweight. It would make sense that they fought at middleweight, however, given that Rockhold beat Weidman to win the 185-pound title back in 2015 and both men have spent virtually their entire careers at that weight class.
“I don’t know, I don’t really care. I don’t care about that, to be honest.”
Although Weidman plans to continue fighting, Rockhold isn’t so sure what the future holds. The UFC veteran hinted after his knockout loss to Jan Blachowicz that he may be finished with MMA.