Weidman turned down Vitor fight, hopes to get title shot(UPDATED)

http://www.mmamania.com/2012/8/22/3259296/chris-weidman-vitor-belfort-anderson-silva-ufc-mma
Weidman recently was interviewed by Ariel Helwani of "UFC Tonight," during which the Long Islander discussed the current state of limbo he and his career seem to be in.

As far as he is concerned, everyone wants to make the fight between he and Silva. Everyone, that is, except Silva:

Quote :

"From what I am being told, it is a fight that the UFC would want to make happen. Now, it is just confusing. I don't know what is going on. I am waiting to find out from Dana White. I didn't take a couple of fights from people challenging me, like (Vitor) Belfort, so I could take the Silva fight. But, now it is all up in the air. I don't know what is going on."

So, in the meantime, Weidman is left somewhat flapping in the wind until either Silva or the UFC makes a decision regarding who is next.

For now, he's not putting a timetable on things, but he's really hoping that Silva will come around and give him the opportunity he's trained his whole life for:

Quote :

"I don't have any deadlines, but I am young and I want to make the most of my career. I have a lot of respect for the guy, I think he is the greatest of all time and I look up to him. I think I am the biggest challenge to him and I think his camp knows that and I think he should challenge me."

Weidman had one last message for Silva, making his case for why he thinks the man considered to be the greatest of all time (G.O.A.T.) by most fans should relent on sign on the dotted line:

Quote :

"Hey man, just give me a chance. Obviously I think I am going to beat you and it is a tough one for me to tell you to do. You had one fight when you got the chance, so just give me my opportunity, just give me the fight."

UPDATE:

Primetyme199 wrote:

This is from Chris about the Belfort fight.


Whatsup guys! Appreciate all the support. Just wanted to make it clear what happened here. The week after my last fight Belfort and a bunch of guys called me out. No fight was offered to me from the UFC. So no fight was turned down. From my understanding the UFC told Belfort the fight wasn't gonna happen with me and him so he took the fight with Belcher. At the same time my management and I were waiting for the UFC to find out when Anderson wanted to fight next. If it was in a couple of months then I was a possible opponent. A couple of weeks after Belfort already accepted the fight with Belcher, the UFC announced that Anderson wasn't fighting until 2013. Had I known that from the beginning I would've jumped on the fight against Belfort. I think he's a great fighter and it would've been great for my career. Thanks
Chris Weidman Phone Post

Sorry bud, but Anderson is going to accept the GSP fight at a catchweight. Doesnt matte how much he kicks his feet, Anderson isnt going to fight him. I would lobby for Bisping if he beats Stann.

jewzilla wrote:

Sorry bud, but Anderson is going to accept the GSP fight at a catchweight. Doesnt matte how much he kicks his feet, Anderson isnt going to fight him. I would lobby for Bisping if he beats Stann.

Weidman is deserving of this fight. I'm glad he is pushing so hard for it. Hopefully Anderson takes this fight because a superfight with GSP would be months away. GSP is coming off a very long layoff and Carlos is very difficult to finish. I don't expect GSP to have a quick turn around after the Condit fight. So we are talking about a long layoff for the aging Anderson Silva. Also no way in hell Bisping jumps over Weidman, even if he KOs Stann.

Where do you come up with some of your replies lol?

Never said Weidman wasnt deserving, nor did I say Bisping would leap frog.

I just meant Anderson is being a bitch, and since you cant force Anderson to do shit, take the next best thing. And I believe that next best thing would be Bisping.

No way Bisping deserves the shot ahead of Weidman.

jewzilla wrote:

Where do you come up with some of your replies lol?

Never said Weidman wasnt deserving, nor did I say Bisping would leap frog.

I just meant Anderson is being a bitch, and since you cant force Anderson to do shit, take the next best thing. And I believe that next best thing would be Bisping.

Quote :

I would lobby for Bisping if he beats Stann

I guess I misunderstood what you ment by that? My bad.

I can see where you would end up confused. Bad wording on my part.

jewzilla wrote:

I can see where you would end up confused. Bad wording on my part.

No prob. I'm totally biased because I hate the idea of Anderson vs GSP. Especially when Weidman is right there and Anderson is healthy and perfectly capable of fighting Weidman and still have time to be ready to face GSP for the super fight. I find it to be pretty annoying that Spider wants to wait for the Super fight.

I don't think this works out good for Wiedman, if he had blasted Vitor, it would have been a lot harder for Anderson to avoid him.

Birdofthad wrote:

I don't think this works out good for Wiedman, if he had blasted Vitor, it would have been a lot harder for Anderson to avoid him.

I agree with this.

Birdofthad wrote:

I don't think this works out good for Wiedman, if he had blasted Vitor, it would have been a lot harder for Anderson to avoid him.

Well according to Dana, Munoz was the higher ranked fighter. Dana said Munoz was #3 behind Anderson and Chael. Dana has also kept the door open for Weidman to be the next challenger with some of his comments. So I can see why Chris would make this push, considering the things Dana has been saying.

If Weidman beats Vitor then he would have a bigger name and Silva would be more happy to fight him for the bigger PPV numbers.

Silva's facing GSP next unless Condit upsets the plans which is certainly a possibility. However Rashad showed us all that waiting for a title shot and staying inactive isn't a great idea.

Weidman is going overboard with this #1 contender idea imo. Just fight someone, I have never thought once that he was going to be selected to fight Silva next.

Well if Spider really is fighting GSP his next fight, which could be a year from now, then Weidman will probably have to fight either Belcher-Vitor winner, Stann-Bisping winner or Timmy B. Since everyone mentioned will probably have to fight again if GSP vs Spider is next on the list.

Not sure that Condit can out point GSP striking, and damn sure couldnt on the ground.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Weidman is going overboard with this #1 contender idea imo. Just fight someone, I have never thought once that he was going to be selected to fight Silva next.

Agreed. If I got the chance to fight in the UFC and make big money, I would take whatever fights I could get.

OU wrote:

Well if Spider really is fighting GSP his next fight, which could be a year from now, then Weidman will probably have to fight either Belcher-Vitor winner, Stann-Bisping winner or Timmy B. Since everyone mentioned will probably have to fight again if GSP vs Spider is next on the list.

If GSP comes out of the Condit fight healthy wouldn't the Silva fight be a candidate for Superbowl weekend or at least Spring ?

Ali wrote:

OU wrote:

Well if Spider really is fighting GSP his next fight, which could be a year from now, then Weidman will probably have to fight either Belcher-Vitor winner, Stann-Bisping winner or Timmy B. Since everyone mentioned will probably have to fight again if GSP vs Spider is next on the list.

If GSP comes out of the Condit fight healthy wouldn't the Silva fight be a candidate for Superbowl weekend or at least Spring ?

Even if GSP comes out healthy, I doubt he would ready for a 3 month turn around. This fight is in mid November and the SB is early February. It's going to be very hard for GSP to finish Condit. It's not like he has KO power and Carlos is going to be tough to submit. So after a 5 round fight, I doubt he is ready for that kind of turn around. Would be ideal though. I would expect it to be an early Summer fight.

OU wrote:

Ali wrote:

OU wrote:

Well if Spider really is fighting GSP his next fight, which could be a year from now, then Weidman will probably have to fight either Belcher-Vitor winner, Stann-Bisping winner or Timmy B. Since everyone mentioned will probably have to fight again if GSP vs Spider is next on the list.

If GSP comes out of the Condit fight healthy wouldn't the Silva fight be a candidate for Superbowl weekend or at least Spring ?

Even if GSP comes out healthy, I doubt he would ready for a 3 month turn around. This fight is in mid November and the SB is early February. It's going to be very hard for GSP to finish Condit. It's not like he has KO power and Carlos is going to be tough to submit. So after a 5 round fight, I doubt he is ready for that kind of turn around. Would be ideal though. I would expect it to be an early Summer fight.

Fair enough that is a quick turn around when you consider their previous activity.

Hopefuily it happens round about Cinco De Mayo.

I'm sure GSP would want an even longer layoff to prepare for Anderson, especially if it's at a catchweight or MW. Could be a long time before that fight actually happens.

OU wrote:

I'm sure GSP would want an even longer layoff to prepare for Anderson, especially if it's at a catchweight or MW. Could be a long time before that fight actually happens.

Anything further than May seems excessive IMO, it's a catchweight fight he's not moving to the Middleweight division.

Ali wrote:

OU wrote:

I'm sure GSP would want an even longer layoff to prepare for Anderson, especially if it's at a catchweight or MW. Could be a long time before that fight actually happens.

Anything further than May seems excessive IMO, it's a catchweight fight he's not moving to the Middleweight division.

Still plenty of unknown factors. We don't know how GSP will look coming off a very long layoff. We don't know how healthy he will be when the fight is over. We don't know for sure exactly what weight the fight would take place at. GSP could break his hand or re-injure his knee or a variety of other things could happen in his next fight. It's MMA, hard to predict.

OU wrote:

Ali wrote:

OU wrote:

I'm sure GSP would want an even longer layoff to prepare for Anderson, especially if it's at a catchweight or MW. Could be a long time before that fight actually happens.

Anything further than May seems excessive IMO, it's a catchweight fight he's not moving to the Middleweight division.

Still plenty of unknown factors. We don't know how GSP will look coming off a very long layoff. We don't know how healthy he will be when the fight is over. We don't know for sure exactly what weight the fight would take place at. GSP could break his hand or re-injure his knee or a variety of other things could happen in his next fight. It's MMA, hard to predict.

But I am saying if GSP comes out of the fight healthy there shouldn't be the need to delay the fight till summer.

Either way I just hope it finally happens.

freakzilla wrote:

No way Bisping deserves the shot ahead of Weidman.

I believe he said that Wiedman should fight Bisping, since he can't get the shot at Silva