Chris Weidman eist rematch tegen Gegard Mousasi

Enkele weken geleden verloor Chris Weidman met een opmerkelijke technische knock-out van de Nederlandse Gegard Mousasi tijdens het co-main event van UFC 210. Na het plaatsen van enkele knieën in het gezicht van Weidman dacht men dat dit illegaal is. Het verwarrende moment werd meerdere keren herhaald op de grote schermen, en al snel was het duidelijk dat de technieken legaal waren. Uiteindelijk was het aan de dokter om de partij te beëindigen. Team Weidman heeft geprobeerd de zaak aan te vechten om zijn verlies recht te zetten. Hij was afgelopen 24 april 2017 te gast bij Ariel Helwani van MMA Fighting en verwacht een rematch.

“We sent in the appeal. It’s really on my managers, my trust is in them. They came up with something to send over, I looked it over, as did my wife. They sent it to New York and I think they might’ve got a reply. As for me and my hopes, to win an appeal in New York, especially it being so fresh, they are going to fight this thing to the death. At the end of the day, it doesn’t make a huge difference to me personally. I know what happened in there was chaos and not right and I was on the losing end of it. It sucks for a lot of reasons, but at the end of the day, I can’t control any of it and it’s over. I’ll just look to the future. Whether they make it a no contest or not, I’m not focused on it. I’ll let my management team deal with that and hopefully the right thing happens. I am not putting much time and effort into thinking about that. At the end of the day, it was a sucky situation that I was a part of and it wasn’t what I wanted to happen and I don’t think Mousasi wanted that to happen.”

Chris geeft aan dat zijn managementteam dit tot op de bodem gaat uitzoeken, echter verteld The All American enkele zinnen later dat het voor hem geen verschil gaat uitmaken. Hij verteld verder:

“I think I would’ve went on to dominate Mousasi and even finish him. Now, this is all my opinion and you can argue this back-and-forth and we will never know for that event. But, I do want a rematch because I felt I was dominating the fight. Even in the second round when he came forward and I was doing the backpedaling and he was punching. He didn’t land anything and I was very coherent and I wasn’t rocked. The rest of the round, I mounted him and took his back. I know Mousasi wasn’t happy with the result, judging by him pulling down his flag and telling his coaches to stop the celebration. I know his tune changed at the press conference and he was coached into the way he was talking at that point. But his instincts were right and as a fighter you don’t want to win that way. It was a debacle.”

De toekomstplannen van The Ultimate Fighting Championship zijn nog onbekend. Gegard Mousasi loopt momenteel rond als een free agent en recent heeft MMA vechter Robert Whittaker zichzelf bewezen. Houd MMA DNA in de gaten voor meer MMA nieuws!