Chris Weidman on Gegard Mousasi: 'He called out the wrong guy'
When Chris Weidman first started plotting his return to action following a disappointing loss to Yoel Romero last year, he was hoping to fight at UFC 208 in Brooklyn this past February.
Unfortunately, a cut he suffered in the fight with Romero took longer to heal than expected and it forced Weidman to tell the UFC that he wanted to compete but just couldn’t give them a timeline when he could return.
According to Weidman, the UFC originally offered him a fight against Robert Whittaker, which he happily accepted but he just couldn’t give them a date when he'd be ready. Not long after that the UFC then returned with a new matchup against Gegard Mousasi and again Weidman was on board, but he still wasn't sure when the cut on his head would be healed up enough so he could start a full training camp.
Suddenly, Weidman was bombarded with messages via social media that Mousasi was calling him out and accusing him of ducking the fight, which clearly took him by complete surprise.
"I go on vacation and then I get a call saying they're throwing Mousasi at me, they want me to fight Mousasi and I'm like all right whatever. But again I still don't know when I'm ready to fight. I want to heal this up," Weidman explained when speaking to FOX Sports.
"The next thing I know Mousasi's on Twitter saying I'm ducking him and that's just the balls on him. I understand he's trying to do what he can do to get a big fight and he wants to start talking and get his name out there but I just lost recently. I've got an injury I'm dealing with and now this guy's calling me out as if I'm turning down a fight with him."
The public call out only served to anger Weidman because he's never turned down a fight with the UFC, much less ducked anybody because he was afraid to face them.
In fact, Weidman says he accepted the fight with Mousasi as soon as the UFC came calling with the offer, but he just couldn't give a definitive timeline when the bout could be booked and that was the only delay before the matchup could become official.
Following Mousasi's public call out, Weidman is now looking to make him eat those words, especially after the grief he received from the former Strikeforce champion making it appear that he was scared to step into the Octagon with him.
"First of all, who the hell does he think he is that I'd be scared to fight him looking at everybody I fought in my career," Weidman said. "Secondly, I'm dealing with an injury. Fighter to fighter, you don't just start calling somebody out right after a loss like that. So I took it a little personal and I'm using it as a little bit of motivation to make him pay for that."
"It's definitely going to be a little extra motivation to show he called out the wrong guy."
In Weidman's mind, he believes that Mousasi was looking at him as low hanging fruit that he could pick off after the former middleweight champion dropped two fights in a row to Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero.
In fact, Weidman says Mousasi will be sorely disappointed once they step into the cage together and he faces off with the most ferocious middleweight he's faced during his UFC career.
"He sees a weak-minded guy who was on top for a while and now lost two [in a row], he's looking at me like I'm on my way down but I feel like I'm in my prime right now," Weidman said. "I had two bad fights, made some mistakes and people capitalized on it but that didn't change me as who I am as a fighter. I'm still the same person mentality wise except now I'm even better.
"He's going to be fighting a much better Chris Weidman than anybody's ever seen. I'm excited to put him in his place."
As much as Mousasi looks to build his own ranking by beating a former middleweight champion, Weidman feels like this is a huge step up in competition for him and that will show in the fight.
Mousasi has run roughshod over his last four opponents in a row, but Weidman can't even remember those performances because none of them came against fighters considered to be elite in the UFC's middleweight division right now.
"I think the last time he fought a top five guy in Lyoto Machida, he lost a decision. Honestly, I haven't really watched that much of Mousasi, I really don't know his record and all the guys he beat," Weidman said. "I remember seeing the Machida fight and I do remember him getting tagged up by Machida. He lost that.
"Then he beat I don't know who they were, but he probably beat some guys who aren't on Machida's level. He lost to Uriah Hall and got caught with that kick and now he's beat some other guys to get on a winning streak. I don't think he's fought guys on my level and he's definitely never fought anybody like me."
