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NEW YORK – It's been more than five years since Chris Weidman shocked the world, and a lot has changed.
Back in 2013, Weidman stepped into the octagon at UFC 162 with a flawless 9-0 record and flattened Anderson Silva with a punch that ended the Brazilian's long reign atop the middleweight division.
Weidman was pronounced the new king and his all-American good looks and well-rounded skill-set, he looked for a new face of the UFC.
For a while, everything went according to plan, but a bad beatdown at the hands of Luke Rockhold cost Weidman his belt in 2015, and he did that with back-to-back losses.
A win last year over Kelvin Gastelum got Weidman back on track, though, and he'll enter Saturday night's co-main event at UFC 230 knowing that a victory over Ronaldo 'Jacare' Souza will be right back in the mix.
"I went from the highest of highs, beating Anderson Silva, beating him twice, being undefeated, undisputed, one of the few guys to ever do it. "Weidman said Wednesday from Madison Square Garden. It was the highest of highs, and then hit the bottom line. "Confidence is everything in this game."
Weidman is still very much in the middleweight title and the UFC has been promised that it will be a winner in the future. Gastelum or current champion Robert Whittaker is forced to withdraw from his title fight – which is rumored to be scheduled for early-2019.
Chris Weidman, top, of Baldwin, N.Y., punters Anderson Silva, of Brazil, during the UFC 168 mixed martial arts middleweight championship bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2013, in Las Vegas. (David Becker / AP)
David Becker /
AP
Weidman has been singularly focused on getting back into the world of rocking at UFC 194. It can be argued that it's going to be a little too much in the ring, and it's going to be eager to run back ever since he lost.
Initially, that had been the plan for Saturday night, but Rockhold withdrew from the schedule and weidman eagerly accepted Souza as a replacement.
"It was frustrating for about 15 minutes because I was obviously pissed off because I wanted to fight Luke," Weidman said. "We decided to do it, and obviously I felt it was going to win and make it a dominant way.
"When you have those visions set up and all of a sudden you've got to get rid of it and get somebody else, obviously it's frustrating for a little bit. But then I got super excited about 'Jacare.' He's a lot of dangerous things to the table, a lot of challenges that I have to overcome, as well. "
While Souza has been on a little bit of a slide, he still remains the UFC's No. 5-ranked middleweight, and has won for Weidman.
There are many other options right now.
Saturday night's card does not have an exciting matchup between Derek Brunson and Israel Adesanya, who has been tapped to the next-big-thing by some, but a spectacular knockout would not be enough for Adesanya to leap to the front of the line.
Weidman, meanwhile, is a champion with a win over Gastelum and no history with Whittaker, so it would be marketable for the UFC.
After the last couple of years, we're going to have a lot of fun.
A lot has changed in the last five years, but Weidman's hung around it all. Even on it's own, which is probably enough to make him deserving of another chance to fight for a title.
NOT AS BIG
It does not seem like anybody should be expecting the UFC's third party in Manhattan to make the same splash as the company's first two trips.
There were around 100 fans in the crowd for Wednesday's open workouts at Madison Square Garden, much less than in both 2017 and '16.
Of course, two years ago the UFC was making its debut in the State of New York and headlined MSG with a lightweight title fight between Conor McGregor and Eddie Alvarez.
Last year, George St. Pierre came out of retirement to Michael Bisping's middleweight belt.
St. Pierre and McGregor are the two biggest stars in the sport, and while Daniel Cormier is a first-clbad fighter and well-respected human being, he just does not have the same drawing power.
It was probably a heavyweight title defense against Derrick Lewis, but it was only a few months ago that they were able to fight for the UFC.
Losing the co-main event between Nate Diaz and Dustin Poirier certainly did not help either.
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