After his victory over Mark Munoz at UFC on FUEL TV 4 in July, Chris Weidman was viewed as the number one contender for the UFC middleweight title.
However, middleweight champion Anderson Silva was not interested in a bout with Weidman and his camp said the champion did not plan to fight again until 2013.
With Silva waiting until 2013 to fight, Weidman decided to have minor surgery on his shoulder and take a fight against Tim Boetsch at UFC 155 on December 29th.
With Jose Aldo injured and out of UFC 153, Silva decided to step up and fight as a light heavyweight on the UFC 153 card. The news of this fight was surprising to Weidman, who talked about the situation on last night’s edition of “UFC Tonight” on FUEL TV.
“I was a little shocked, confused, disappointed,” Weidman said. “I had actually had just ended up getting elbow surgery about a week ago. As soon as I announce the Boetsch fight and getting elbow surgery, the same week I find out Anderson Silva is now fighting Stephan Bonnar in UFC 153. It’s tough.”
With having surgery recently, Weidman would not have been able to accept a fight with Silva if the UFC offered it to him. If he were healthy, Weidman would have been willing to take on Silva as a light heavyweight.
Weidman will still be facing Boetsch at the end of the year and the UFC has not said if the winner of the fight will be next in line for a title shot. Silva wants to face George St-Pierre in early 2013, so it’s likely that the winner of Weidman and Boetsch will take another fight before a potential shot at the title.