At 40 years old, no one would have been surprised or complained if Chris Weidman made the decision to retire and step away from the UFC. The New York native has already achieved some great things in his career as a former middleweight champion.
He's also overcome some tough losses and in recent times, some devastating injuries that would have been the end for many fighters. Losing his return fight in August last year against Brad Tavares didn't discourage him from continuing to compete.
In his last fight, he returned to the win column and though it was a fight that carried a lot of controversy with it, Weidman did look good in the fight. Unfortunately, a lot of the praise for him was undone by the multiple eye pokes that Bruno Silva suffered which ultimately led to the fight being stopped and changed from a TKO to a decision verdict due to the injury.
Weidman is now set to return to face Eryk Anders at UFC 309 and though his luck when fighting at Madison Square Garden has been less than ideal with two knockout losses, it would make a lot of sense to wrap things up in front of a home crowd at the world's most famous arena.
In an interview with MMA Fighting, the former champion revealed that is very unlikely to be the case on November 9. Instead, he's choosing to take each fight as it comes and will decide whether or not he wants to continue after the fact rather than before or during his time in the Octagon.
Honestly, I’m still taking it fight by fight to see how I feel, to see how I perform. 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.
“I’m pretty much taking it fight by fight, 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.
