Chris Weidman expecting fireworks in FURY Professional Grappling debut: 'It's going to be a fun one for the fans'
Weidman faces fellow grappling powerhouse Pat Downey on Friday, May 23, at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City.
Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman will forever be linked to his stunning 2013 knockout of UFC Hall of Famer Anderson Silva, but with his MMA days likely done, "The All-American" is ready to get back to his first love in martial arts.
"I'm super excited," Weidman said. "Grappling is something I've always had a passion for coming from a wrestling background. I got really into jiu-jitsu when I first started training for MMA, and I did a few competitions with that, and then fighting in MMA and my UFC career just really took over. I wasn't able to compete in grappling for so many years, and it's fun now that I retired from the UFC."
Weidman's first post-UFC appearance will take place on Friday, May 23, where he'll take on former U.S. Open Wrestling national champion Pat Downey in an intriguing 215-pound matchup at FURY Professional Grappling 13, which streams live on UFC FIGHT PASS from New Jersey's Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City.
It's a challenging initial contest for Weidman's return to competitive grappling, and one he's excited to face.
"Pat Downey's a great opponent," Weidman said. "It's a tough matchup. Really good wrestler with great jiu-jitsu skills who's been on the grappling circuit for the last few years and doing really well, so I think it's a fun way for me to test myself and for me to stay in shape and stay engaged in the MMA space."
It's a dream matchup for Downey, as well, who admits he was a Weidman fan during his opponent's UFC championship run. The respect level is so high that the generally brash Downey said he wasn't sure there was any material for him to use for any pre-match banter.
Weidman says he appreciates the respect but wouldn't mind if Downey levied a few verbal jabs in the buildup.
"I want him to know, don't worry – he could do all the antics he wants," Weidman said. "It's all good. I've got really thick skin. He's not going to bother me. It's all love, and it's part of the game, so I want him to know I'm not going to be mad at him. If he wants to talk some trash about me, he could find some things to say about me.
"But yeah, it's cool that he's being really respectful. I know he's a real character. He's got a cool personality, and he could back it up, so it's a fun matchup. I've watched him for years. I'm a wrestling fan, come from a wrestling background, so I watched him when he got on the World Team. He did some really, really great things in the wrestling world, especially in freestyle, so it's cool for me be to be going against him, as well."
Downey has been the more active grappler as of late, abandoning a brief MMA run to shift his focus purely to submission wrestling, including an appearance at the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational this past August, as well as an entertaining win over UFC middleweight Andre Petroski at FURY Professional Grappling 12 in December.
But Weidman's grappling skills have served him well for nearly 20 years, and he says that while his knockout of Silva is likely the first highlight most people remember from his MMA career, he's a ground fighter at heart.
"I was definitely a grappler first," Weidman said. "I did the Abu Dhabi trials and I won those, and I did the Abu Dhabis in 2009. I got to go into overtime with Andre Galvao. All this, I believe I was a blue belt, so early on, I ended up having a real strong confidence in my grappling game – not just the wrestling, but the jiu-jitsu aspect, as well. I really fell in love with jiu-jitsu quick, and in all my fights, I felt like the grappling was probably always my biggest asset, but going into a fight, it's hard to take guys down.
"You can't just think, 'Oh, I'm going to be able to take this guy down so easy and just have my way with him.' These guys are fighting for their lives. Everyone's putting a lot of work into getting better and better with stopping takedowns and stopping submissions, so it's way easier said than done when you're inside of a fight to just take someone down and submit them, but yeah, that's definitely my bread and butter, would be grappling."
Two powerful, high-amplitude grapplers going head-to-head should provide some incredible fireworks on a card that also includes the first two title matches in FURY Professional Grappling history, the first single-night tournament for the organization, and much more – not to mention a stacked CFFC 142 lineup the following night, as well.
Weidman knows he's going to be challenged in his first appearance since his retirement from MMA, but the competitive drives still burns within.
"I'm going to bring it," Weidman said. "Maybe I get thrown around. Maybe I throw him around. Really, I'm very curious. I'm very open-minded to the results, but I'm going to give 100 percent effort, and we'll see. We'll see where I'm at.
"I think it's going to be a fun one for the fans. I think we're going to have fun out there. I know he likes to throw people. I like to throw people, too, so if we end up being in those type of positions, that should be fun. Whether he throws me or I throw him, it should be fun, and I'm excited about the whole thing."
