At 40, and just over three years removed from one of the most devastating injuries in UFC history, Chris Weidman recognizes his own mortality when it comes to fighting.
The former middleweight champion already defied the odds when he returned from a gruesome broken leg suffered back in 2021 that resulted in numerous surgeries and more than two years on the sidelines as he recovered. He finally got his first win since the injury when he defeated Bruno Silva back in March, but as much as that was a night and day performance compared to his initial return to action, Weidman refuses to look too far down the road when it comes to his future in the sport.
“Honestly, I’m still taking it fight by fight to see how I feel, to see how I perform,” Weidman told MMA Fighting. “Right now in the gym my body, I feel good and I’m doing great in the gym but I’ve got to be able to perform under the lights.
“So that’s all just fight to fight at this point at my age and everything. We’ll see how I feel and we’ll just play it from there.”
In his initial return back in 2023, Weidman promised he was more than ready to go but then once he set foot in the cage, he just couldn’t pull the trigger on throwing kicks on the same leg that endured all that trauma. To make matters worse, Weidman’s opponent Brad Tavares attacked him with a vicious series of leg kicks that put him on the defensive and actually resulted in a small fracture on the opposite leg from the one that was previously injured.
When he returned seven months later, Weidman felt dramatically better and he was finally able to perform without constant concern about the leg injury.
He’s only built on that confidence as he prepares for his return against Eryk Anders at UFC 309, but Weidman understands that nothing is guaranteed once a fight gets started. That’s why he’s not making wild declarations about his future but rather thinking about every performance as a potential gauge on whether or not he decides to compete again.
“I’m pretty much taking it fight by fight,” Weidman said. “I’ll make my decision after the fight. I’m not planning on putting my gloves down or anything like that either win or lose. But I’m planning to just not make any rushed decisions.
“Right now, I still feel great. I’m excited. I love training. I love being in camps. I love just the whole discipline of it and how it keeps you on routine. It’s really addictive. I’m super competitive so it’s just like the ultimate best thing for me to be doing. But obviously you can’t do it forever. So that’s why I’ve got to take it fight by fight and kind of just weigh the pros and cons of everything and see where we’re at.”
As much as he tries not to think about it anymore, Weidman confesses that the broken leg he suffered back in 2021 is always going to play into his training camps and upcoming fights.
Add to that, Weidman turned 40 back in June and as the old adage goes, father time remains undefeated when it comes to sports.
He got a healthy dose of reality about the way his body has changed over the past few years when he participated in a baseball challenge with his son just recently.
“With MMA, I still feel great, I still feel fine on the mats,” Weidman explained. “I don’t feel 40 year years old, all these surgeries, I still feel great. I’m going with these younger guys and doing as good as usual. As good as I ever have. But when it comes to other sports, I feel like I slowed down. Sports specifically for MMA, my body has adjusted and I know I’ve got situations to stay away from that would hurt me. I’ve been able to be dominant in those positions that I’m going into. But I played baseball the other day with my son, both my kids are on these travel baseball teams.
“We had to see who could throw harder so they had the gun out so they could measure the speed, and I was never the fastest thrower, but my 12-year-old son is not going to beat me on the speedometer thing. He beat me bad. He threw a 62, I threw a 51 and my shoulder hurt and I felt terrible. Like two pitches, and I’m done. It was awful. Then we got to switch it around and your kid got to pitch to you to see if he could strike you out as if it was a real game, you’ve got the balls and everything going, an umpire. He struck me out and I’m telling you 10 years ago, I will say I really believe that would not have happened. I think I would throw harder, and I think I’m hitting the ball off of him. The age definitely, I felt old doing that. But when I’m in the MMA gym, I still feel good.”
Considering the sheer number of surgeries that Weidman has endured over the years, it’s not a surprise that his body feels it from time to time when he’s participating in sports that aren’t MMA.
Make no mistake, Weidman doesn’t believe he’s lost a step when it comes to fighting, but there’s no way to just ignore the kind of trauma he’s endured over the years, especially with the leg injury.
“It’s something I’ve got to make sure I warm up and I’m on top of and I’m strengthening and all that stuff forever,” Weidman said. “For the rest of my life.
“This leg had now 14 surgeries on it. I’ve had 14 surgeries just on this one leg and 30 surgeries overall throughout my body. So I’ve got lots of things I’ve got to think about.”
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