Chris Weidman reflects on brutal loss to Yoel Romero

Earlier this month at UFC 205, former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman returned to the Octagon for the first time in a year. The fight was Weidman’s first since his UFC 194 TKO loss to Luke Rockhold back in early December of 2015, which saw him lose the middleweight championship.

When Weidman stepped into the Octagon at UFC 205 earlier this month, it was in front of his hometown New York crowd, where he was fighting top ranked middleweight Yoel Romero. With the fight tied at 1 round each, Weidman appeared to have gained some momentum going into the third round. Unfortunately for ‘The All American’ he found himself on the wrong end of a brutal flying knee KO that also opened up a massive cut on the side of his head.

In the wake of the loss, Weidman reflected on the situation in an interview with MMAFighting, saying:

“I just felt like there’s no way I’m losing. If I win this third round, it’s over,” Weidman explained on The MMA Hour. “And I shot a takedown. If you watch, if you’re a technical person in the MMA game, when you fight a southpaw, you always put your head to the side of his front leg. You never go to the back leg. And every one of my takedowns I hit on him in the fight was to his front leg, my head to the outside of his front leg, which stays away from the danger of a knee or a heavy left hand. And the one time I shot to the wrong side, which I drilled a million times not to do, he came up with that knee.”

“I was on the tough side of it that night. UFC 205 was the first fight ever in New York. It was a dream come true for me, and obviously I was definitely hurt after the fight as far as my feelings. I was upset, but I realized the blessings — just being a part of that event really was a dream come true, minus losing. The walkout, even fighting, I had fun the whole week. It was all great up until the loss, but even that, it’s just a part of the game and you’ve got to get right back on that horse and get back out there and get a ‘W.’ I just want to be done losing. I don’t want to lose anymore.”

Despite the brutal KO loss, Weidman was only handed a minimum 60 day suspension from the New York State Athletic Commission, and will be looking to return to the Octagon, and the win column, as soon as possible.