Chris Weidman Shelved with Second Thumb Surgery

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight king Chris Weidman is confident that once he gets his body right he’ll be back better than ever inside the Octagon.

Weidman (14-3) is coming off an impressive submission victory over middleweight contender Kelvin Gastelum in July 2017. However, during the fight, he suffered a thumb injury which has caused him significant issues. He was recently forced to undergo a second surgery on his thumb after an unsuccessful rehabilitation.

Before his victory over Gastelum, he suffered three straight defeats to Luke Rockhold, Yoel Romero and Gegard Mousasi.

Weidmann was a guest on the latest episode of “The MMA Hour” and talked about his recent injury struggles and what he wants to accomplish when he’s healthy again.

“I have some great fights coming for myself,” Weidman told host Ariel Helwani. “I have accomplished a lot, but I am still young in my MMA career, as far as fights. I have a lot of great things coming. I’m not to the point where I am going to start looking back and wishing or saying ‘If I wasn’t injured for that, or this, things would be different.’ I am very blessed in where I am in this sport. I am blessed for everything I have accomplished so far and I am blessed with the abilities that I have.

“When I speak and say I am the best in the world and have the capability to dominate everybody in my weight class, I really believe that. If I give half of my energy to this sport and really didn’t give 100-percent of my mental to this sport, then I could finish my career as a fan favourite; win some, lose some, win some big fights, lose some big fights. But I feel I really have the mentality and the physical abilities to completely dominate my weight class. I have to get back physically first with this hand and get my mentality where I need to be and I can run through everybody.”

Weidman went 13-0 in his MMA career on his way to capturing and defending the UFC middleweight belt before suffering his first loss at the hands of his long-time rival Luke Rockhold in December 2015. Weidman has notable victories over Demian Maia, Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, Vitor Belfort and Kelvin Gastelum.