What’s Next For Chris Weidman?

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Another weekend of fisticuffs has come and gone, as UFC on ESPN 6 blew the roof off TD Garden last Friday night (Oct. 18, 2019) in Boston, Massachusetts. Plenty of fighters were left licking their wounds, including Jeremy Stephens, who failed to back up his talk, losing to Yair Rodriguez via unanimous decision.

And Greg Hardy, who had his win over Ben Sosoli overturned to a “No Contest” after he illegally used an inhaler in between rounds, though he got permission from the commission, first.

But which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now two days removed from the show?

Chris Weidman.

Coming into his Light Heavyweight debut, Chris wasn’t looking for a tune-up fight on the road to get at division kingpin, Jon Jones. As a result, he was given undefeated (12-0, 6-0 UFC) contender, Dominick Reyes. Prior to the fight, “All American” proclaimed that a title shot wouldn’t be out of the question with a win in “Beantown.”

Unfortunately, he spoke a bit prematurely.

After feeling Dominick’s power early on, Chris went to his wrestling, and managed to take down “The Devastator,” though Reyes — the much bigger man — managed to get it back to the feet.

From there, Reyes did what he does best, clipping the former Middleweight champion with a step back straight left, sending him crumbling down to the canvas. Three hammer fists later, and it was all she wrote (see it).

As predicted.

That is know five knockout defeats in Weidman’s last six outings, which is alarming to say the least. Where Chris goes from here, no one knows, though he did say he would be back better than ever.

Unfortunately, that’s the same tune that’s he’s been singing after nearly every knockout defeat, and at some point — despite how much confidence you have in yourself — you have to start worrying about your long-term health, as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is very real.

UFC president Dana White, however, has already made it very simple for Chris, telling his former 185-pound champion to either move back down a weight class or retire for good.

“What he said tonight didn’t sound to me like he is considering retirement,” said White at UFC Boston’s post-fight press conference (replay HERE). “So it’s a conversation he and I definitely need to have. This was his move up to light heavyweight, which obviously didn’t go well for him. So maybe he goes back down to middleweight or he thinks about maybe retiring.”

No fighter likes to be given an ultimatum, but either way, it seems Chris does have the option to keep fighting if he drops back down to Middleweight. After all, guys like Andrei Arlovski and Alistair Overeem turned it around (somewhat) after bad losing streaks inside the Octagon, so Chris may very well do the same.

As for who he should face if he does indeed fight against at 185 pounds, perhaps a fight against someone like Tim Boetsch is in order. Tim has a fairly well-known name, and has struggled himself as of late, losing two in a row. While it’s probably not the big name Chris would want, it something he needs to get used to before he rises back to the top.

No disrespect to “The Barbarian,” of course.

For complete UFC on ESPN 6: “Weidman vs. Reyes” results and play-by-play, click HERE!