Chris Weidman wasn’t trying to foul Bruno Silva in their fight at UFC Atlantic City, but he can’t change what happened before he earned a technical decision win.
Originally, Weidman scored a TKO victory after Silva dropped to the canvas midway through the third round and the former middleweight champion blasted him with a barrage of punches for the stoppage. Replays showed that it was actually a pair of eye pokes that caused Silva to turn around and fall to the ground in pain, but referee Gary Copeland didn’t see what happened until it was already too late.
The officials reviewing the footage decided that rather than allowing the fouls to determine the outcome, they would use the judges’ scorecards at the time of the stoppage to determine the winner. That was Weidman across the board, with all three judges giving him the fight 30-27 as he climbed back into the win column for the first time in nearly four years.
After the event, Weidman admitted that he wished things had played out differently, but he also acknowledged that Silva did himself no favors by reacting the way he did, which led to the stoppage in the first place.
“I’ll never question a guy if he says he gets poked in the eye, but you can’t just drop every time you feel like something is touching your eyeball,” Weidman said at the UFC Atlantic City post-fight press conference. “He poked me in the eye bad one time and I stood there, took it. Unless the ref’s going to say something, I don’t drop. I come from a wrestling background. It’s a similar thing. You can’t look to the ref, they’re not going to help you. Sometimes it’s going to go against you. You’ve got to be always ready. Ready to defend yourself at all times. He dropped again. I don’t know.
“Was he looking for a way out? I don’t know, but you can’t just turn your back and fall to the ground every time your eyeball feels poked.”
Weidman said he regrets the way things played out, especially during such a monumental moment in his career as he sought to get back on track following a devastating broken leg that nearly ended his MMA run three years ago.
His first fight back this past August didn’t end well for him, so Weidman had a lot riding on his performance on Saturday night. He still walked away with the win, but the 39-year-old veteran wishes there wasn’t such a dark cloud hanging overhead.
That being said, Weidman knows he didn’t intentionally foul Silva, so he’s not going to let the result totally ruin his celebration.
“Did I want to poke him in the eye? No, I’m unhappy that I poked him in the eye,” Weidman said. “But when you’re fighting with these small gloves, [eye pokes] kind of just happen.
“If I had what it takes to think about getting my finger in his eyeball, why would I even do that? I’d be able to put my fist right on his chin every time I wanted. It’s harder than you think to be like, ‘I’m going to eye poke this guy.’ It’s just unintentional crap that happens when you have small gloves on and you’ve got fingers extended in gloves. It’s unfortunate. Obviously, I’d rather a TKO, but I get it. I won all three rounds so I’ll take it.”
As far as the future goes, Weidman admitted that had the fight with Silva ended differently, he could have called it a career on Saturday, but that’s not how it all played out.
Weidman felt rejuvenated in the octagon, especially as far as his leg was concerned after struggling in his previous matchup against Brad Tavares.
“I’m 39 years old,” Weidman said. “My leg is just getting back to where it’s not painful. I threw leg kicks today, I threw head kicks. I couldn’t even throw my leg last time. Also, the last time I fought, I couldn’t circle to my right, I couldn’t load my right leg.
“I considered [retirement] plenty of times, and I think if I would have lost tonight, if I would have not got my hand raised, it could have been the last time. I had that in my mind. If I was in there and I was like, ‘I just don’t have it anymore,’ I may have put the gloves down. But it didn’t happen. I got the win so here I am.”
With a win under his belt — controversial or not — Weidman anticipates more fights coming soon, and he’s excited for whatever comes next.
“I still think I have a lot of potential,” Weidman said. “I’ve had a lot of adversity. I still think I have it. Until I think I don’t have it anymore, I’m here. I love it. This is fun. I still got my looks. So until one of those start going, I’m here. This is too much fun. I was meant to do this.”
