Chris Weidman Back After 2 Years, faces Brad Tavares at UFC 292
Former UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman returns to octagon more than two years after a horrific leg break in his last fight.
Chris Weidman is expected to face Brad Tavares in a middleweight bout at UFC 292 on August 19, 2023. The report comes from Newsday before Weidman himself confirmed it on social media that he will be back in action.
Weidman suffered a horrific leg break at UFC 261 back in April 2021 during a fight against Uriah Hall, when Hall checked Weidman’s calf kick merely 17 seconds into their fight. Weidman underwent surgery to put in a rod in his leg. He had to undergo another surgery three months later to put in a plate when his injury was not healing properly.
I’m back! 🦵💥
— Chris Weidman (@chrisweidman) June 6, 2023
Stoked to be in the octagon once again at The @TDGarden for @UFC 292 on Saturday, August 19th.
Let’s gooo! 👊🇺🇸#UFC292 pic.twitter.com/6kepYujDRW
Weidman went back to training at the start of 2022, but it took more than a year for him to get ready for a return to UFC Octagon. Weidman returned to action with a grappling bout earlier in March on UFC Fight Pass Invitational.
It will be interesting to see how Weidman fares in his return to the octagon. Weidman’s career trajectory has been all downhill since he lost UFC Middleweight Championship to Luke Rockhold in December 2015. Undefeated until then, Weidman suffered 5 more losses in 7 bouts to take his overall MMA record to 15-6. Had this break allowed him for a turnaround and start afresh at UFC 292?
Facing Weidman will be Brad Tavares who himself is on a 2-fight losing streak. After being out of octagon in 2020 due to ACL injury, Tavares returned in 2021 with wins over Antônio Carlos Júnior(UFC 257) and Omari Akhmedov(UFC 264). However, he then lost to Dricus du Plessis and Bruno Silva in his last two bouts.
UFC 292 is set to take place in Boston, MA, at TD Garden Arena. A bantamweight title bout between Aljamain Sterling and Sean O’Malley is the headliner along with Zhang Weili vs Amanda Lemoz women’s strawweight title match in the co-main event. Gerald Meerschaert vs Andre Petrovski middleweight was just added to the card last weekend.
