“What he said tonight didn’t sound to me like he’s considering retirement,” White said at the UFC on ESPN 6 post-fight press conference. “So it’s a conversation that 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 thinks about maybe retiring.”
While Weidman’s light heavyweight debut against Dominick Reyes didn’t go as planned, “The All-American” has no designs on hanging up the four-ounce gloves.
“I’m hearing a lot of ‘you should retire’ comments, and I get where you are coming from based on the results of my recent fights,” Weidman wrote in a statement on Instagram. “It’s crazy because with a win over Reyes the chances of me fighting for the world championship were very strong. Now to be getting hit with the retirement talk is really a big swing for me to get used to hearing. I will tell you that I am [definitely] not ready to retire. I still love this and am very hungry to get back in there. I believe I have the abilities to still be world champion.
“I know some of you are shaking your head and laughing at me when I say that .. well screw you, and thanks for the motivation.”
Weidman’s lone victory during his current stretch came in July 2017, when he submitted Kelvin Gastelum in the third round at UFC on Fox 25. All of his five defeats have come via knockout or technical knockout, though they have occurred against top-flight competition — Reyes, Ronaldo Souza, Gegard Mousasi, Yoel Romero and Luke Rockhold.
At the moment, the Serra-Longo Fight Team standout is unwavering in his belief that he will be able to turn things around.
“This fight I was coming off a year layoff, [two] major surgeries, and a weight class change. Way too much time out of the gym and I feel like that did play a role in this fight,” Weidman wrote. “The fact that I’m healthy right now and can get back in the gym is territory that I’m not used to.
“I will be back soon and I will look good doing it. Thank you everyone for your support and I’m sorry to let you down. This extreme low in my career will be part of my story, and I will finish on top.”
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