Chris Weidman hoped for 'Dan Ige type' situation after UFC 309 fight day cancelation, settled on UFC 310 instead

After 15 years as a pro, Chris Weidman went through a new experience on UFC 309 fight day in New York.

Headed to the shuttle for his ride to the arena and a clash with Eryk Anders, the former UFC middleweight champ received a call from UFC CBO Hunter Campbell that his opponent was out of the bout with food poisoning. Weidman, 40, was notified at 5:30 p.m. local time, catching him just about as close as he could to stepping into the Octagon without actually doing so.

As tough as some of his losses have been in his 23-fight career, this experience was a new pain.

"Completely devastated," Weidman said on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show." "I felt great for this training camp, 12-week camp, and the weight cut was definitely a tough weight cut. Got through that part then you're waiting for all day long, anticipating the fight and the pressure of that. Then all the sudden you get that phone call before your walk and you're ready to tear that band-aid off and walk to the Octagon and put on a show, and it just gets taken away from you. I couldn't believe it.

"A part of me was like, 'Is this a joke?' That's never happened to me before. So it's a new one after all these years.

"I was super excited to fight in New York in front of all those people," he continued. "I had two fights in Madison Square Garden and we know how those [losses] went, so it was kind of like third time's the charm. I was ready for some retribution and redemption. It got taken away from me."

New York and Weidman haven't gotten along as he's 1-3 in the state with all three losses coming via increasingly devastating knockouts. Madison Square Garden, in particular, dealt Weidman brutal losses at the hands of Yoel Romero and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza shortly after his title reign ended in late 2015.

"The All-American" returned to his winning ways in his most recent bout after a two-fight skid, defeating Bruno Silva via technical decision this past March. Weidman admitted after the fight that had he lost, he likely would've retired. Fortunately for him, he performed better than expected only one fight removed from his catastrophic leg break against Uriah Hall in 2021.

The Anders pairing has been rebooked for this Saturday at UFC 310, but only after Weidman heard there was an attempt to repeat Dan Ige's famous late step-in from UFC 303.

"I saw him the next day. I saw him walking through the hotel lobby and stuff," Weidman said of Anders. "We chatted for a little bit. Apparently him and his teammate (Marcus McGhee) got food poisoning too. [McGhee] fought. I guess his might not have been as bad.

"Based on what [Anders] said, what the UFC said, he told them early on he did a shake-out and couldn't hold up his hands in the morning. I think he said he doesn't think he's going to be able to fight but they wanted him to push through and try to get to the locker room and see how he feels when he's in the locker room. I think that ended up being the goal.

"[The UFC] also said they were trying to find another opponent that whole day. They were looking for 205 pounders that either fought that day or anybody in the area, trying to do one of those Dan Ige type situations, but apparently the New York commission was not going to allow anything on that type of short notice. So I believe they tried their best to find some kind of fight for me that day and the New York commission, I guess, was hard to deal with."

After all the turmoil, Weidman revealed he essentially got to call his shots for what and when his rebooked appearance would be. If UFC 309 wasn't doable, the following weekend's UFC event across the globe in Macau was, as were UFC 310 in December and UFC 311 in January.

Ultimately, Weidman didn't want to get out of fight shape or repeat a draining weight cut. Therefore, the bout remained against Anders but instead at a 195-pound catchweight.

"The UFC, they were being really good with me, 'We can get you on the Macau card, December, you want to fight in January? You want to fight in March?' All these different opportunities, which is nice" Weidman said. "I chose this one because I'm healthy right now, and I could have chose one later on to recover from camp and everything like that, but then there's a chance of getting injured, then I'll have regret.

"Right now, I feel great. I just kind of tacked my camp on a little bit longer with the weight cut in there. Now we're doing a catchweight. They said I could pretty much fight at whatever weight I wanted. I could have done 205 but I said let's do 195 just so I don't feel lazy eating whatever I wanted. Have to stay disciplined for the next couple weeks, so 195 it is."

As far as compensation goes, that's a bit of a different story — and one that is slightly more complex for Weidman.

With a UFC tenure that dates back to 2011, the Serra-Longo product no longer competes under a traditional show-win contract. Weidman gets a guaranteed purse with a flat payout to show up without the option of a win bonus. Despite missing out on the payday because of his opponent, he isn't quite getting all he should be. But it's being dealt with differently, he says.

Come fight night on Saturday, everything is expected to be sorted.

"They're going to take care of me, I'll say that," Weidman said. "They're doing something for me. I'll make more money. I'm not getting my full purse, I'll put that out there, which is tough.

"You show up, you do everything right and you don't get it, but they are giving me the opportunity to fight again here very soon to make me whole. So, I can't complain too much. They're still going to hook me up with something from that fight, for everything I went through for the traveling and getting my coaches and everybody out there. Then I get an opportunity to fight here a couple weeks later. I'll be fine. I get my full pay then. I don't know what happens if Anders doesn't show up this time."