Chris Weidman’s goal is simple: to be the best ever

LAS VEGAS – From his earliest days as a mixed martial arts fighter, from the time he was a virtual unknown until the summer night two years ago when he was favored by many insiders to win the championship, Chris Weidman trained to defeat Anderson Silva.

Silva was the reigning UFC middleweight champion and gaining widespread recognition as the best fighter ever in 2009 when Weidman turned pro.

During each training camp, no matter the opponent, Weidman prepared as if he were facing Silva.

“He was the man and if I wanted to be where he was, I had to be prepared to beat him,” Weidman told Yahoo Sports.

In 2013, he did exactly that, twice. He knocked out Silva to win the UFC middleweight championship in July, then successfully defended it when Silva’s shin snapped as Weidman checked a kick.

Though the legendary Brazilian champion is now in the twilight of his career, Weidman is, in some ways, still chasing Silva.

Weidman’s new goal is to finish his career unbeaten and with the kind of recognition Silva had until they met at UFC 162 in Las Vegas on July 6, 2013.

“Obviously, I accomplished my first goal of being the UFC champion and beating Anderson Silva,” Weidman said. “That was my long-term goal: Winning the belt, beating Anderson Silva and then beating him again. That was definitely one set of goals I had for myself. But then suddenly, I had to reinvent and add some new goals for the Lyoto Machida fight [at UFC 175 last year] and for this fight. Basically, I want to be one of the greatest of all time. I want to retire undefeated and I want to completely dominate my weight class. Those are my new goals.”

He’ll get the chance to start down that path Saturday when he meets Vitor Belfort in the main event of UFC 187 at the MGM Grand Garden in a middleweight title match.

Belfort has, in many ways, become the poster boy for the UFC’s Performance Enhancing Drug Era. He was busted in 2006 while he was fighting in PRIDE and then created enormous suspicion when he began testosterone replacement therapy (TRT).

He not only became physically larger while he was on it, he became more successful too.

When it was banned by the Nevada Athletic Commission last year, Belfort withdrew a request to fight in Nevada until he could acclimate his body to training without TRT.

It’s pretty obvious from his tone that Weidman is no fan of Belfort’s. Several times he referred to Belfort’s physique as “jacked,” and said he supports the tough penalties for drug test failures the UFC announced it would support as well as those that were implemented recently by the Nevada commission.

He said Belfort became noticeably larger after getting knocked out by Silva at UFC 126 in 2011. That said, Weidman isn’t sure how much the extra muscle helped the Brazilian.

“I saw a difference in his muscularity, obviously,” Weidman said of Belfort. “He was pretty jacked for a couple of those fights. But if you look at his fights, he’s had some pretty huge wins when he doesn’t look physically as jacked as he did right after that Anderson Silva fight. I think he looked better in some of those fights – he didn’t look better physically, but fight-wise – when he wasn’t quite as jacked. He was more free and maybe not as scared to get tired. His punching might have been quicker because he had less muscle.

“I’m expecting a guy who won’t be as jacked as his last couple of fights, but still as dangerous. He’s not as muscular and so it’s just science. The more muscle you have, the more the lactic acid is going to build up and you get tired faster. Less muscle is sometimes better.”

Weidman, though, almost sounded defiant when he spoke of Belfort. He said that though he expects Belfort to play by the rules, he expects to win regardless of whether Belfort has used prohibited substances.

He’s made a career of overcoming incredible adversity. This is a guy who not only has had to fight back from a series of pretty significant injuries, but also from major life obstacles.

His home was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. In the same year, 10 days before a bout with Demian Maia, his uncle died unexpectedly.

He’s been through things that test a man’s soul and come through. And so he doesn’t seem quite as concerned about an opponent potentially using a performance-enhancing drug as others tend to be.

“I hear people say I’m injury prone and I’ll be honest: That pisses me off,” he said. “Yeah, I’ve been hurt, but it’s a tough sport and you’re going to have injuries. But I’ve fought through so many different things, people have no idea. So do other fighters.

“You always want to have the cleanest training camp and cut and lifestyle going into a fight, but a lot of times, it’s hard for that to happen because life throws you a lot of curveballs. I just understand now how it goes and I expect things to happen, whether it’s injuries, or Hurricane Sandy or being sick or a death in the family, whatever. You have to be prepared to get yourself through it and get back to work. That’s what I’ve always done.”

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