Ex-UFC champ Chris Weidman not taking Dana White’s advice

“I’m not done,” Weidman told reporters during the UFC 292 post-fight news conference. “I’ll be back better than ever, but this was a good opportunity for me to get back in the Octagon.”

Saturday’s loss was the seventh in the last nine fights for Weidman, who was coming back from a more than two-year layoff following a gruesome leg injury suffered against Uriah Hall at UFC 261 in April 2021—the effects of which showed during Round 1 when Weidman seemed a bit hesitant to throw much offense Tavares’ way.

Weidman settled in a bit in the second round, but Tavares went with a leg kick-heavy attack, which slowed the former champion down and hindered his ability to move in and out of exchanges.

“There was hesitancy; there was probably a little bit of ring rust,” Weidman added. “…I can’t believe he leg kicked me. When he started leg kicking me, I was like, ‘You ba---rd. You’re such a nice dude, why are you freaking leg kicking me?’ Then when he kicked my [surgically repaired] leg, that’s kind of what p---ed me off.”

When the fight was over, Weidman had a noticeable limp and White and others speculated that Tavares’ kicks blew out one of his knees.

After starting his career 13-0 with two wins over former pound-for-pound king Anderson Silva (34-11-1), which snapped his 17-fight win streak that spanned more than six years, Weidman hit a rough patch.

He lost his 185-pound belt via fourth-round TKO to Luke Rockhold (16-6) in December 2015, and he lost four of his next five fights by knockout or TKO. His only wins over the last eight years come against Kelvin Gastelum (17-8-1) in 2017 and Omari Akhmedov (24-8-1) in 2020.