Chris Weidman felt he was dominating Mousasi at UFC 210, targets rematch

It’s now been several weeks since Chris Weidman’s controversial TKO loss to Gegard Mousasi, which marked his third-straight strike-induced loss in a row. 

The controversy of this loss surrounded a strange choice by the referee, who first paused the action on the assumption that Mousasi landed an illegal knee, then called the fight when he realized the knee had been legal. On the latest edition of The MMA Hour, Weidman broke down this chaotic sequence, and his choice to appeal the outcome of the fight with the New York State Athletic Commission. His words (h/t MMAMania.com):

“We sent in the appeal. It’s really on my managers, my trust is in them. They came up with something to send over, I looked it over, as did my wife. They sent it to New York and I think they might’ve got a reply. As for me and my hopes, to win an appeal in New York, especially it being so fresh, they are going to fight this thing to the death. At the end of the day, it doesn’t make a huge difference to me personally. I know what happened in there was chaos and not right and I was on the losing end of it. It sucks for a lot of reasons, but at the end of the day, I can’t control any of it and it’s over. I’ll just look to the future. Whether they make it a no contest or not, I’m not focused on it. I’ll let my management team deal with that and hopefully the right thing happens. I am not putting much time and effort into thinking about that. At the end of the day, it was a sucky situation that I was a part of and it wasn’t what I wanted to happen and I don’t think Mousasi wanted that to happen.”

Weidman then explained his belief that, were it not for this controversial stoppage, he probably would have dominated Mousasi – perhaps even to a finish.

“I think I would’ve went on to dominate Mousasi and even finish him. Now, this is all my opinion and you can argue this back-and-forth and we will never know for that event. But, I do want a rematch because I felt I was dominating the fight. Even in the second round when he came forward and I was doing the back-pedalling and he was punching. He didn’t land anything and I was very coherent and I wasn’t rocked. The rest of the round, I mounted him and took his back. I know Mousasi wasn’t happy with the result, judging by him pulling down his flag and telling his coaches to stop the celebration. I know his tune changed at the press conference and he was coached into the way he was talking at that point. But his instincts were right and as a fighter you don’t want to win that way. It was a debacle.”

Do you think Chris Weidman should get a rematch with Gegard Mousasi? Sound off, PENN Nation!

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/25/2017.