The Daniel Cormier Show - Chris Weidman on beating Anderson Silva to become UFC champion, BRUTAL leg injury

Summary

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The Daniel Cormier Show: Chris Weidman on Beating Anderson Silva, His BRUTAL Leg Injury, and the Mindset of a Champion

Podcast: The Herd with Colin Cowherd (The Daniel Cormier Show)
Guest: Chris Weidman
Host: Daniel Cormier
Air Date: October 30, 2025

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Overview

Daniel Cormier sits down with former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman for an in-depth, personal conversation about Weidman's journey from his rough-and-tumble upbringing in Long Island to dethroning Anderson Silva, enduring a devastating leg injury, and the lessons learned from parenting, perseverance, and adversity. The tone is a mix of reflection, humor, candor, and brotherly banter, offering fans rare insight into the mind of a champion inside and outside the octagon.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Early Life and Family Dynamics

[04:16–15:52]

• Tough Long Island Childhood:

  • Growing up in a diverse but rough neighborhood with a strong, supportive family.
  • Brother Charlie was both a protector and tormentor, described as "the definition of an 80s bully" ([04:16–06:48]).
  • Anecdote: Charlie once scared off a group of older kids with a bow and arrow when Chris brought them home after being threatened ([06:16]).

• Sibling Rivalry & Resilience:

  • Regular wrestling and fighting at home toughened Chris up for real life:
    • “All through wrestling or if there was, like, street fights, I always just knew that they weren’t my brother. … What he put me through was there was nothing that they could do to make it worse than that.” – Chris Weidman [06:50]

• Learning from Family:

  • Chris’s early drive stemmed from seeing his parents’ struggles with his brother and wanting to bring them some peace ([07:08–07:51]).
  • Comic relief: Chris would psych himself up for fights by singing "Denver, the Last Dinosaur" ([08:44–09:48]).

• Parental Support:

  • Dad was a “cheerleader”—100% supportive but never hard on Chris or pushy about sports ([11:08]).
  • Quote: “He’s the way I want to be as a dad, to be honest. … Just super supportive, never acted like he knew anything about wrestling, wasn’t putting his input.” – Chris Weidman [11:11]

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2. Wrestling Career and Transition to MMA

[15:52–26:16]

• Academic Struggles & Junior College Route:

  • Despite high school success in wrestling, poor grades/SATs kept Chris from going straight to Division 1 ([17:15–18:10]).
  • “I had to go to junior college. … But only because, like, I mean, junior college worked out great for me.” – Chris Weidman [18:10]

• First Wrestling Breakthrough:

  • Confidence grew after beating a senior teammate and becoming All-American at Fargo ([18:55–19:57]).
  • Chris started wrestling early but had gaps; played all sports growing up, credits multi-sport background ([20:00–20:38]).

• Parental Balance—Raising Competitive Kids:

  • Daniel and Chris discuss the challenge of fostering competitive spirit in kids without living vicariously or burning them out.
  • “Your kid has to decide if he wants it or not. And if he really wants it, then you’re there for him and you’re gonna give him whatever he needs to get there.” – Chris Weidman [23:10]

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3. Mental Toughness, Success, and The Price of Winning

[26:16–49:52]

• Struggles with Mental Hurdles:

  • Weidman admits to “choking” in big wrestling matches, losing to champions while ahead, and having to shift his mentality entering MMA ([26:16–27:28]).
  • “When I got into MMA, that was the mind shift … I’m just going to outwork everybody.” – Chris Weidman [27:28]

• Path to UFC Stardom:

  • Transitioned into MMA after helping fighters as a wrestling coach at Hofstra; first foray was jiu-jitsu, winning $2,000 at a tournament after just three months of training ([32:36–34:17]).
  • Rapid rise: Only 9–0 when he fought Anderson Silva for the title!
    “I was on a mission. … I believed I could be the world champion. … It was me who made that fight happen.” – Chris Weidman [35:16]

• The Anderson Silva KO — Beating The GOAT

  • Anderson’s showboating got under Chris’s skin, leading to the knockout:
    • “That was actually me losing my composure. I got pissed… That’s why it was a weird combination… I just wanted to hit him with something. … And I just hit him.” – Chris Weidman [39:02]
  • Aftermath: Surreal moment; was not anticipating a KO victory ([40:24]).

• Silva Rematch/Leg Break:

  • Second fight, Silva’s demeanor changed: “He had a different approach to that fight, and you could see it all over.” – Daniel Cormier [41:04]
  • Chris recalls, “I thought I mentally and physically broke him at that point.” ([43:23]). Difficult to celebrate a win on an opponent’s brutal injury ([44:00]).

• The Toll of Injuries and Losing the Edge:

  • Success led to lifestyle changes, shorter camps, piling injuries, and loss of that “hungry kid” edge ([45:09–48:16]).
  • “The chip on my shoulder started starting to fall off.” – Chris Weidman [48:25]
  • After losing to Luke Rockhold, mental doubts crept back in, hard to regain top form ([49:03–49:52]).

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4. The BRUTAL Leg Injury and Road to Recovery

[53:33–61:25]

• The Injury:

  • At UFC 261, Weidman’s leg snapped after throwing a calf kick (“the only time I’ve ever seen that was Anderson’s leg, right?”) ([54:13]).
  • Graphic, excruciating pain, confusion, fear of losing the leg:
    • “It was the worst pain I could; I can't explain how terrible it was. … The nerves were all damaged.” – Chris Weidman [55:09, 59:59]

• Hospital Ordeal:

  • Wife rushed to his side before surgery; nightmarish pain management, anxiety about amputation ([57:09–59:01]).
  • “My biggest thing—I could cry thinking about it—I just wanted to be able to play with my kids again.” – Chris Weidman [58:29]

• Physical and Mental Recovery:

  • “Physically, it was the hardest thing I ever been through, for sure… But it was tough mentally as well.” – Chris Weidman [59:59]
  • Weidman’s first comeback fight: hesitant to throw kicks; “I couldn't…my body wouldn't do it.” ([61:25])
  • In his next fight, he made a point to throw them—"I needed to get that monkey off my back." ([62:20])

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5. Retirement, Family, and Legacy

[62:30–73:54]

• Stepping Away from MMA:

  • At 41, accepted that injuries—and especially his knees—made high-level MMA impossible, but is open to jiu-jitsu and (possibly) a special boxing match ([63:48]).

• Family as Foundation:

  • Emotional acknowledgment of wife, children, and newly adopted daughter Savannah as his “backbone… my legacy” ([65:12–66:43]).
  • “[My] legacy is my family. … The fighting legacy, at the end of the day, that disappears. … It can’t be your main motivation … it’s about the impression and the role model you could be for the people around you.” – Chris Weidman [66:58]

• On Resilience:

  • Advice to his children: “Adversity is coming for you. … Don’t give up. Stay positive and push through. … Find the silver linings in the tough times.” – Chris Weidman [72:15]

• Proud Moments:

  • When asked what makes him most proud, Chris admits: “I think I'd be lying if... I didn't say winning the World Championship.” ([73:54])

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “All through wrestling or if there was, like, street fights, I always just knew that they weren’t my brother... What he put me through was there was nothing that they could do to make it worse than that.”
  — Chris Weidman [06:50]

• “He’s the way I want to be as a dad... That’s how I feel. It worked for me. He was just super supportive. Never acted like he knew anything about wrestling.”
  — Chris Weidman [11:11]

• On the Silva KO:
  “We had pro boxers come in, put their hands down, taunt me in training. I kept my composure… Then he did it one more time, and that was actually me losing my composure. I got pissed... and I just hit him.”
  — Chris Weidman [39:02]

• “Physically, it was the hardest thing I ever been through, for sure... Nobody should have to feel that type of pain.”
  — Chris Weidman on his leg injury [59:59]

• “For me, my legacy is my family. What I can pass down to them. The fighting legacy, at the end of the day, that disappears.”
  — Chris Weidman [66:58]

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Timeline of Important Segments

| Timestamp | Topic / Quote | | --- | --- | | 04:16–07:51 | Childhood toughness, sibling stories, parental influence | | 11:08–12:35 | “Cheerleader” parenting vs. pushing kids in sports | | 17:15–18:10 | Junior college route: “I had to go to junior college.” | | 26:16–27:28 | Overcoming mindset hurdles: “Choke artist” to champion mentality | | 32:36–34:17 | Entry into MMA and jiu-jitsu—first $2,000 tournament win | | 35:16–41:04 | UFC title run, beating Anderson Silva: “I was on a mission, bro.” | | 43:23–44:00 | Silva’s leg break in the rematch—feeling empathy, not celebration | | 48:25 | “The chip on my shoulder started starting to fall off.” | | 54:13–59:01 | Leg injury, hospital ordeal: “I just wanted to play with my kids again.” | | 61:25–62:20 | Hesitancy to kick again, then finally “getting the monkey off my back” | | 65:12–66:43 | Family and legacy: “My wife has been the backbone... My legacy is my family.” | | 72:15 | On adversity: “Don’t give up. Stay positive and push through.” | | 73:54 | Proud moment: Winning the world championship—“I’d be lying if I didn't say... World Champion.” |

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Tone & Final Thoughts

The conversation is heartfelt, honest, and sprinkled with humor. Cormier and Weidman, both warriors in and out of the cage, discuss the realities behind the highlight reels: childhood trials, the hazards of success, the difficulty of letting go, and the transcendent importance of family. For both fighters and fans, this episode offers a deeply human look at what it takes to be a champion—and why the battles that matter most are often fought outside the arena.

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Transcript

[Daniel Cormier]

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[Daniel Cormier]

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[Chris Weidman]

I mean, am I allowed to say there was a teleprompter, but you actually went off. You went off teleprompter. Yeah, times. That's talent most of the time, or skill.

[Daniel Cormier]

You're the man, Chris.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah. Impressed.

[Daniel Cormier]

Hey, I, I, I talked a little bit about growing up in Long Island. What was that like? Right? Because so many people, we all have different upbringings. Obviously, we all end up in the same place here, but obviously we are born and brought, Bought up differently. Yeah. How was growing up in Long island with you and your sister and your, your brother, who, by the way, was literally the definition of the 80s bully, which we will get into a little bit later.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, man. I loved, I had a great upbringing. I had great parents. Super supportive, loving. They were at everything of mine. Every sporting event, they were showing up. Grew up in, like, a diverse town. It was like, in the area, people thought it was, like, pretty tough. I didn't think it was anything crazy. There's way worse. But I grew up. I grew up. Oh, snap. Can they hear anything?

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Chris Weidman]

I grew up, you know, fighting a lot. You know, like you, like you mentioned, my brother was, was big, strong, you know, three years older, athletic. He was pretty much better than me at everything. He Was smart, too, and. But he would also put it on me. He was. He was. He could be mean.

[Daniel Cormier]

Why. Why do you think so?

[Chris Weidman]

Ah, man, he was. He was just a different character, like, as a friend. He was a great friend. Very loyal. And you. You know, he'd have your back to the death. He'd do anything for you. But for me, when it came down to, like, me getting beat up by other people, he would have my back. Like, there's one story that comes to mind. I was. It's funny we're talking about this now, but there was a bunch of these Crips, you know? You know, you got the Crips and the Bloods.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah.

[Chris Weidman]

Where we're from, there was really only Crips. There was a couple other towns that had Bloods, you know, and who knows what they really were, but at the end of the day, they could consider themselves Crips. And they were. They were messing with me. And I was basically like, you know, you guys could. You guys could beat me up, but why don't you come down to my house? My brother would beat you guys asses.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah.

[Chris Weidman]

And so I brought. Because they're older, so I brought them to my house, and I'm like. I get inside, I'm like, charlie, these kids are outside. They're trying to beat me up. And he comes. He was like, oh, yeah. One second. He goes inside his room, he gets a bow and arrow.

[Daniel Cormier]

And what?

[Chris Weidman]

He comes outside with a bow and arrow? His big white dude who doesn't give a crap. And these dudes just sprint in different directions. They're running bow and arrow. Bow and arrow. He was a. He's a. He was a maniac, you know, He's a great. He's great family man now. He's changed for the. For the better. Thank God. Because if he stayed on that path, he would have been either dead or in jail.

[Daniel Cormier]

Really?

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah. He was crazy.

[Daniel Cormier]

So that obviously toughened you up, though.

[Chris Weidman]

It toughened me up all through wrestling or if there was, like, street fights, I always just knew that they weren't my brother. So I was good. Like, I. What he put me through was there was nothing that they could do to make it worse than that.

[Daniel Cormier]

When that was happening, though, like, what were your parents, like? Did he hide it from your parents, or were they kind of like, charlie, stop.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, man. This is a kid that first grade, he walks into. He walks into his first grade class, and, you know, the teacher's introducing herself, and her name was Mrs. Berger. And so Charlie shakes her hand My brother's name is Charlie. Shakes her hand and she goes, hi, my name is Mrs. Burger. And he goes, mmm, Berger. And bites her hand. He just, like, chemically, you know, his brain was on a different level, bro. You know, running away from school, he was. I mean, I seen. He tore like my parents were. You know, it was a tough. My parents were great parents, but he was a tough kid to parent. You know, I seen the torment that he put them through. That's what kind of led me trying to go down the right path because I hated to see my parents so upset and defeated all the time with what, you know, he was kind of.

[Daniel Cormier]

Putting them through, you know, when I had a big brother, you know, my brother's Joe, he could be tough on me, but he was too busy, like, doing his own thing to worry about me. We were 12 years apart, though. How old are you? Far are you guys?

[Chris Weidman]

Three.

[Daniel Cormier]

Three years.

[Chris Weidman]

Three and sometimes four years.

[Daniel Cormier]

So we were 12. And that's great.

[Chris Weidman]

So he can't kill you that bad.

[Daniel Cormier]

Well, when he. When I. When I would get threatened with fights, he never stopped it. One time I was gonna get beat up, and I was gonna go home. We lived right across the street, and I thought I was gonna get saved by him, but instead he told him they couldn't jump me and made me fight. You know, that was one of those things that happened a lot where I grew up at, and it backfired on my friend. One time, he got his ass beat so bad, bro. Really, his mom made him keep fighting. It was so bad. And it's like. But at least you could go to your parents to escape Charlie.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, yeah, like my parents, but my. My dad and then my mom started working as we got older, so, you know, they weren't around as much. You know, I could go and tell, but he was going to beat my ass for telling, so. But yeah, he did the same thing. I would have to fight his friends, and their friends were always, you know, bigger and stronger, and they beat my ass. But I had to stand my ground. And I had this thing. I used to sing Denver, the last dinosaur. The last dinosaur. And I would go into fights like that, and I thought I was invincible. Chris, the only person didn't work against it, didn't work against Charlie, because I would start singing it. I'd act like I'm psycho and I'm coming at him. And then he just, like. He would call me out. He would call my bluff. Should have walked out to that, bro.

[Daniel Cormier]

Chris.

[Chris Weidman]

I would have never lost.

[Daniel Cormier]

Cj Is laughing at you because he knows.

[Chris Weidman]

He knows all these.

[Daniel Cormier]

You start singing this shit.

[Chris Weidman]

He knows all these stories.

[Daniel Cormier]

You start singing that you deserve to get your ass kicked. Man, the kid that's singing then last time type song is the craziest. That is the craziest story.

[Chris Weidman]

I guess I wasn't the coolest kid.

[Daniel Cormier]

Oh, man, it was bad. It was so bad. So what it was. Did it feel like you had a shield around you when you sang that song?

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah. No, I thought it. It was like, what gave me energy and. And like, I. I thought I couldn't get beat if I was singing that. For some reason. I don't know how it happened. Yeah, but I don't know how that came about, but that was my thing. I would just start singing that and I'd just be like, nobody could beat me. Yeah.

[Daniel Cormier]

That is crazy, bro. I hope my son never sings that. If my son was getting in the fight and he starts singing, I'd slap the.

[Chris Weidman]

I was younger, though. I was younger than even our. Our kids. I was probably like, this is. I feel like I was doing this probably anywhere from 7 to 11.

[Daniel Cormier]

What made you stop?

[Chris Weidman]

I don't know. I don't know. Well, I started getting into sports and stuff. Yeah, I started getting into wrestling and stuff like that. And I wasn't just fighting all the time like that anymore, so.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah. So, Chris, you had a good wrestling career, right?

[Chris Weidman]

I like how you say good.

[Daniel Cormier]

No, stop. Most. But most people, right, when they do that, when they have success in sports, a lot of times the parent is pretty present in there. Like you said, your dad and mom were always there.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah.

[Daniel Cormier]

Was your dad hard on you at all? Or was he kind of, like, laid.

[Chris Weidman]

Back and didn't really.0% hard on me?

[Daniel Cormier]

Come on.

[Chris Weidman]

Chris literally never mentioned, hey, you should get up and do a run. You should go to this practice. He was working hard. He was just very supportive. He's the way I want to be as a dad, to be honest. That's how I feel. It worked for me. He was just super supportive. Never acted like he knew anything about wrestling, wasn't putting his input. Same thing with my brother with football. He ended up playing in college and same thing with me with all my sports. But when I got really obsessed with wrestling, I mean, it was all on me. If I wanted to get the X practice in, if I wanted to go find the best guys around, it was me finding rides and whatever I have to do.

[Daniel Cormier]

Really?

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah. Yeah. 00%. Did he ever push me at all?

[Daniel Cormier]

So My dad, he wasn't the hardest, but he always made sure I went to practice and he would always kind of like make sure I was doing the right thing. But he was always kind of tough. Right. Like, he never really, like hugged me and like he wouldn't like kiss me or anything. Did your dad, like show you affection?

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, now he, he. I don't say. Yeah, we. Yeah, yeah. He. I'm kissing, hugging, not, not. It's not like we were cuddling on the couch. Like.

[Daniel Cormier]

No. Like me and my son, I kiss my son on the head all the time.

[Chris Weidman]

Me and my kids, we cuddle all the time.

[Daniel Cormier]

Before every wrestling match, I'll give him a kiss or a football game, I kiss them on the. For it. Yeah, my dad didn't do that though.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, I don't know if he was doing that, but he was there. He was a cheerleader. He was just a cheerleader. Yeah, the whole time. He was just a cheerleader. That's it.

[Daniel Cormier]

The craziest thing is, like, I saw my father before he passed with my kids. I could not believe how freely the I love yous just kind of flow.

[Chris Weidman]

How he was saying I love you. So.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah, it was so free for him to say that to the kids.

[Chris Weidman]

So my dad, when I never really.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah, I never got.

[Chris Weidman]

I can relate to that. With my father in law, my wife's Marie V's dad, he was a Vietnam vet. He was a very hard dude. He was very tough on, like her and her brother and his kids. But when we started having kids with the grandkids, oh my God, he was like a. He was like a baby.

[Daniel Cormier]

The nicest guy.

[Chris Weidman]

So nice to them. Just.

[Daniel Cormier]

I had no idea. I was like, I had no idea.

[Chris Weidman]

Almost like they could almost talk back a little bit and they're not getting killed. They wouldn't even think about talking back.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah. Not in this, in today's world. You can't get the kids like you used to.

[Chris Weidman]

No, that's true.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah. You can't do that.

[Chris Weidman]

Like you, I say, I make sure my kids don't throw back. They think everything's a joke with me. Well, because you're always playing around, I'm always messing around. And they can get me to smile too. I could be pissed and they'll just do things to just get me to smile and then they think it's a joke. I'm like, I'm serious.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah.

[Chris Weidman]

But then I start smiling and they think it's funny because you're happy. Yeah. But I'm just trying to like I'm trying to, like, be a dad and tell them what's up.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah, life is happy for you. But, Chris, when you were a kid and you were going through all that, you broke your collarbone riding a dirt bike. So I broke my collarbone, too. We got a lot of stories that are very similar. I was playing football with the older kids, and I got clotheslined.

[Chris Weidman]

How old were you? Do you remember?

[Daniel Cormier]

I think I was, like, nine. And the guy.

[Chris Weidman]

I was about the same, man.

[Daniel Cormier]

The guy kind of, like, clotheslined me, and I went halfway back and broke my collarbone. It was one of the most painful things I've ever experienced.

[Chris Weidman]

Same here.

[Daniel Cormier]

But. But I got up out of that park, I walked home, and I was tough, but when I got to my mom, I started crying like a baby. My arm was broken. I couldn't move it. They put me in a sling, got me healthy, and I got back together. But you got punched in the shoulder instead of getting.

[Chris Weidman]

My poor brother. I just want to say you got.

[Daniel Cormier]

Punched in the shoulder.

[Chris Weidman]

I was getting grudges on my brother, the way I was treated as a kid, because it made me who I am. And literally, there's no bad blood at all. But that's the stories of the stories, the facts of the facts. So, yeah, I was. I wasn't on a dirt bike. I was on, like, a regular. Like, a BMX bike. And we built these jumps where there was this double. And my brother and all his friends, the older kids, they built. They built it. And I was going to be the first guy to try it.

[Daniel Cormier]

Why?

[Chris Weidman]

To see if it works. You know, to see if it's a test. I was a test dummy. And of course, my dumb ass is like, okay, you know, I'm doing it. So I do it. I'm trying to do a backflip. I'm trying to do a backflip over it.

[Daniel Cormier]

Well, because you're trying to prove yourself to them. You want to be those guys.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah. So I land on my shoulder, I break my collarbone completely in half, and I'm, like, down. I'm like, oh, my God, my shoulder.

[Daniel Cormier]

Whatever.

[Chris Weidman]

They come over, they line up. You would be crying if your shoulder is broken, blah, blah. They start punching me in my arm one at a time, and I am, like, numb. And then I have to leave by myself. I know something's wrong. So I had to walk my bike all the way home, and I laid on my couch for probably about five hours until my mom got home. And I'll never forget the drive to the emergency room every, like, Vibration, everything. Because the collarbone.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah, the collarbone just keeps moving.

[Chris Weidman]

Oh, it was, that was awful.

[Daniel Cormier]

So you're a 9 year old kid in the back of the car. Where the hell's Charlie at this point?

[Chris Weidman]

I don't know. I think he got in trouble. I mean, it wasn't like he was doing this and not getting in trouble. He was getting in trouble, but I don't know if it was gonna change.

[Daniel Cormier]

I, I honestly can't stand Charlie. Yeah, even today he's fine. But like this dude, I think you.

[Chris Weidman]

Met him, you met him at a tournament.

[Daniel Cormier]

I met your brother.

[Chris Weidman]

You met my brother? There's a guy from upstate, man, I'm gonna forget his name, it's terrible. There's a guy who does, he coaches Empire, I think.

[Daniel Cormier]

Kd, Is it kd?

[Chris Weidman]

No. What the hell's his last name? So he, he wrestled at Iowa with, with Tom Ryan. He has a, he has a club upstate New York called Empire. My nephew goes there. And so they were at.

[Daniel Cormier]

Man, I know exactly what you're talking with him. He's at the US Open. I met your nephew. Yep. U20s. And that was his coach?

[Chris Weidman]

Yes.

[Daniel Cormier]

And your brother?

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, my brother was there.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah, I, I, I can view his face now because you guys look the exact same.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Daniel Cormier]

But all that led to you starting wrestling, right?

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah.

[Daniel Cormier]

You start wrestling, you said you get obsessed with it. You have a pretty, you have a really good high school career, right? Win the states twice, win the counties twice.

[Chris Weidman]

One time. One time. One time.

[Daniel Cormier]

You won the state?

[Chris Weidman]

Nine states.

[Daniel Cormier]

Okay.

[Chris Weidman]

Two time county. Yeah.

[Daniel Cormier]

So you win the states one county twice. Why did you end up in junior college? Because a guy in New York City, in New York that's a state champion is generally a Division one guy.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah. So I was getting, I was getting looks and everything from Division 1 schools, but I didn't know about the Division 1 Clearinghouse. You know about the Division 1 ClearingHouse. So it's a combination of your SAT scores and your GPA. And man, I was very bad in school. I was embarrassingly bad. And then once I started realizing these Division 1 colleges wanted me, I was like, all right, I gotta get good.

[Daniel Cormier]

Start trying to hustle.

[Chris Weidman]

So I got all A's my senior year in school. So I brought my GP up, GPA up. I needed to get a 990 on the SATs. I took it five times. I couldn't break 980. So basically I was, I had to go to junior college.

[Daniel Cormier]

Isn't that unfortunate, though? Because now there is no Standardized testing, they've got rid of it.

[Chris Weidman]

You could do different things.

[Daniel Cormier]

No, they've gotten rid of it.

[Chris Weidman]

Really.

[Daniel Cormier]

You don't need. You don't need that anymore. I did the act, same reason I was in junior college. GPA and the ACT did not match. They don't have that no more. Doesn't that kind of, doesn't that suck? Thinking back to it, like.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, but I, I don't have any regrets, but only because, like, I mean, junior college worked out great for me. I had a great junior college career, you know, great people I got to meet, great coaches, people I'm still close to today and the one that went division one afterwards. So it was all good.

[Daniel Cormier]

Was there a moment when you were wrestling? Right. Because wrestling's hard, especially early. You get beat a lot, man. You don't. It doesn't click for many kids the moment they walk into the wrestling room. They're just good. I struggled for like a year and a half, but I, I don't really quit anything, so I just kept going while all my friends quit. Was it hard for you in the beginning? And is there a moment you remember where, like it kind of clicked for you and you go, hey, wrestling, this is my thing.

[Chris Weidman]

It was my freshman year, I was on JV all year. And there's a senior on my team, this kid named Adrian Giwa, and he ended up. They ended up deciding to put me into the conference, like the varsity conference tournament. So the other starter who's been in front of me the whole year, Adrian Giwa, was gonna be in that tournament as well. So I ended up going to the finals and I go against Adrian Giwa and I beat him. And then I go into the counties that went. I think I went 02. But just because I saw that I had, you know, some skill, I was able to beat this senior that started giving me some confidence to where I started working over the summer. And I started like kind of falling in love with it. And then that was the first push where I was like, all right, I gotta really start working on this. I think I might, you know, had the chance to be good at this and it's fun. And then I did Fargo going into my. It was my freshman year, going to my sophomore year. Yeah. So that summer I did Fargo and I ended up becoming a two time All American. I All American, then Greco and freestyle. And so right away that gave me confidence.

[Daniel Cormier]

Like, wow, when did you start wrestling?

[Chris Weidman]

I started, I wrestled in second and third grade, then stopped wrestling because they didn't have it in my town anymore until seventh grade. So it gave me, like, a little base seven, you know, second and third grade, doing, like, twice a week. And then just during the wrestling season. And then I started again as a seventh grader.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah. But I was playing every sport.

[Daniel Cormier]

It probably refreshed you, though, right? To get away from. Because once you go all in on wrestling, you're so focused on it that it's hard to really do much of anything else.

[Chris Weidman]

That's why I'm scared with our kids, you know, like, there's so much. Like, when I was a second and third grader, there wasn't anybody saying, hey, we should be going to these national tournaments. We should be doing these extra practices. There was nothing like that.

[Daniel Cormier]

I asked you today for your kid to wrestle on national duel teams with this.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, I appreciate that.

[Daniel Cormier]

That's crazy, though. Like, it's like that's the level to which they go and wrestle.

[Chris Weidman]

I know it's crazy, but there's kids that are doing that way earlier, you know, like second, third grade, they're going to Tulsa's, and they're taking it very serious very early. And I think there is a. In my opinion, I think there's like, a time period of probably about 10 years where you could be truly obsessed with something to. Where, like, you might still be obsessed after that 10 years. I mean, you still might be the best in the world after 10 years, but I think the level of obsessiveness on that activity is going to slowly, like, deteriorate, and then other people who have that passion and that obsession are going to start, you know, catching up and surpassing you. So I feel like timing, the passion is probably really hard to do, but I think that's what the greats have, is that the timing. The timing was, well, like, just happened to work out.

[Daniel Cormier]

But most dads can't do that, right? Especially when they live through the kid. They push the kid, and they push the kid, and they push the kid, and the kid becomes the best in the world. But by the time they're 15, 16, 17 years old, they're thinking, I don't really want to do this anymore. Then the dad's heartbroken. But then how do you find the balance, right? Like, how do we find the balance as dads who live the life that we lived knowing that our kids have certain amount of you to live up to, and also a desire to not only do well, but do also. Because I am Chris Weidman's son. Right. And my name is Chris Weidman. Right. When I go out on the wrestling mat. I need to be able to do that. How do you do that? How do you find that balance with your boys while not being overbearing? Because there's already a built in pressure.

[Chris Weidman]

And I really hope they just, I really don't push them. I try not to push them. But you also want to encourage them. If they have a true passion for it. I'm going to be super supportive. But you can't instill a passion to somebody that just kind of has to happen on its own. So I think when you're trying to push that passion into somebody, it's just a battle that's going to be lost. You know, you're going to end up losing your relationship with your son. You're going to, you know, your son's going to end up falling out of love with the sport and it usually goes backwards. But that being said, like I've also seen the other way. I've seen parents push their kids like maniacs.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yep.

[Chris Weidman]

And they.

[Daniel Cormier]

And it work out.

[Chris Weidman]

And it work out where the kid's amazing. I don't know about the relationship with the parent. Maybe it's good, maybe it's not, but I, it doesn't.

[Daniel Cormier]

That's where they suffer. That's where those relationships suffer.

[Chris Weidman]

I'm going with the percentage of what I've seen in my life. I think it's better not to. Your kid has to decide if he wants it or not. And if he really wants it, then you're there for him and you're gonna give him whatever he needs to get there.

[Daniel Cormier]

So John Smith, the greatest American wrestler of all time, never coached his kid until he got older. 13, 14, 15, kid ended up being a three time all American and that's enough. But it's like, can you be your father when you are who you are? Because sure, your dad was very supportive. He was a bit of a cheerleader, but he also didn't know what you know and he can't give what you can give. So then how again, how do you not cheat with not passing on that knowledge?

[Chris Weidman]

You have so much knowledge that you want to pass on to your son to cheat, to cut, cut those hard times, make it a shorter time period where he's going through those hard times because you're giving him the cheat code, basically. And I try to do that. My kids, if I start feeling they're rolling their eyes, they're looking the other way, I'm out. And I hope that. And it's starting to happen a little bit. But at some point, I hope that it's full attentiveness and I could help them, you know, get there a little bit quicker so they don't have to, you know, go through as much hard times as, you know, we had to go through. But I also, you know, I didn't become an Olympic champion. I didn't become, you know, Olympian. I didn't become a national champion in wrestling. So I never really accomplished my goal in wrestling. So I'm not saying that everything my dad did, you know, is the way to be, but for me, I like the idea of trying to be the cheerleader, being a really good wrestler fighter, and then trying to teach your kid. It's almost like a blessing and a curse. Like, you have all this knowledge that you want to, you know, instill into your kids and. But then how do you make sure you're not, you know, pushing through them too much?

[Daniel Cormier]

I think it's almost impossible for the kid to do what the dad did, especially in wrestling. Like, Nate Carr is so lucky, because David Carr is amazing. It doesn't work out that. That much. I asked John that. I said, what's success? He goes, joe, being an All American was success for me. Not everybody's gonna be an Olympic champ. And then I was like, he's right. And my kid ever becomes a state champion. One time I was place winner. I'll be happy. Because that's. You can't have that expectation of them, of what we had. But I think we also need to push them to make sure that they at least have the opportunity to learn it, because we learn on the job, we can give them some of the things that we went through to try to guide us and guide them in their careers. But your career didn't take you to Hofstra. You become an All American. But again, it was still hard, right? At times, you took some losses. How have loss. How has loss been a way for you to build? And how have you taken losses from the college wrestling match to the mixed martial arts? How have you applied that loss to make you better going forward?

[Chris Weidman]

Well, especially coming. I think what comes to my mind is when I. When I got done wrestling, I was kind of known as, like, the kid who kind of could beat anybody, but also could lose to anybody. And I was kind of a mental midget. I was. I would. I would choke. You know, I went to the semifinals twice. The two times I went Division 1, I made the semifinals Both times. Both times I was winning against the guy who eventually won the national championship. And then I got pinned. So it was, you know, just find a way to lose. And I, and when I reflected when I started getting to mma, I had to try to figure out like, what the hell is wrong with me? Why am I this guy? And I realized that I think there was a lot of these guys were just working way harder than me and smarter than me. I was competitive, I loved to compete, but I wasn't doing the extra stuff at all. I liked being like I was the athletic kid that could beat anybody. You know, that was, that was, that was cool for me. But when I got into mma, I was like, you know, I don't want to be that kid anymore. I wanted to be that hardworking blue collar kid that just grinds every day. So I, when I got into mma, that was the mind, mind shift that I made within myself was like, you know, I'm just, I'm just going to outwork everybody. And then eventually became a habit.

[Daniel Cormier]

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[Chris Weidman]

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[Daniel Cormier]

Was kind of what you did right like, that's what you did, right. As you speak about mixed martial arts, but you end up training on Long Island. Where'd Raylon go? Was that just kind of by chance? Because that's where you're from? It's like, we talked about this before. You and I were like, man, you got kids that go wrestle for you from all different places, and kids transfer and they move and they do all these things. When we were growing up, it was like you kind of just go to your local high school. Yeah. And then you just go, was that what that was with the gym with Longo, Sarah, mma? It was like it was on Long Island. You were. Or had you moved back home after college and that was the gym that you were closest to?

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, for me, it was just seamless, I guess. Just luck being blessed. The way I even got into MMA was there was MMA fighters coming from Lagos and Matt Serras coming down to Hofstra to learn to be a better wrestler. So I was helping them with their wrestling, and I wasn't even thinking about fighting at that point. And then eventually I was trying to be an Olympian. I was trying to be on the Olympic team. And after I got injured right before the trials, and that was kind of the crossroads. Like, all right, am I going to try to make the world teams I was making? I was an assistant coach at Hofstra. Hofstra. Getting a master's degree and making $12,000 a year. And so I'm like, man, this is a tough way to live, you know? And I was living in my parents basement. We were just. Just having our first kid. My wife is out. She just got her CPA license. She's working at Price Warehouse Cooper. And I'm kind of the loser, you know, just making $12,000 a year. So I saw all these fighters making money. I knew wrestlers were doing really good with it. I had a lot of people around me that knew where I came from and the way I grew up. They knew my brother, they're like, you'd be like, amazing at this. You should be doing this. And I'm like, yeah, maybe you're right. And when I got it, when I first walked into Matt Serra's gym, that was when I made that switch in the mind, like, all right, I'm just gonna try to outwork everybody. And I did three months of jiu jitsu, straight up. I paid whatever it was, like $200 a month, and I paid for a GI$169. And after three months, I did a grappler's quest. And I did my weight class and then the absolute division, and the winner of the absolute division would get $2,000. So I ended up submitting everybody in my weight class and the absolute division, black belts, you know, the black belt division. And I won $2,000. I'm like, Bro, I could do this.

[Daniel Cormier]

You were three months into your career.

[Chris Weidman]

Three months. Three months. I'm like, I could make. I make more money doing this every. If I could do this once a month, I'm making more money doing this than I am coaching the Hofstra. So then I was like, I got my wife on board. I'm going to start, you know, going down to Longos and learn how to do stand up. And then six months later, I had my first pro fight. I just went straight into it.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah, I don't know many guys that were more highly regarded as prospects as you coming into the ufc. But to live up to that was crazy. But yours was expedited. You only had 9, 0 when you fought Anderson, bro. When Anderson was rocking and rolling at that time, he was by far the best fighter on the planet. He was scary, he was dangerous. You're nine and no, you haven't even been in Octagon 10 times. And you get that call. What was that call like? Because I. I know. I see stuff that you've talked about where you go. I was excited. I was. There had to be a part of you going, man, this is fast.

[Chris Weidman]

I was on a mission, bro. I was in a. At that time, I was so focused on becoming a world champion. It was everything to me. You know, I had failed in everything else I did, you know, wrestling and stuff. I never accomplished my goal. And this was. I was doing everything right. I was out working everybody. I was winning every training session against anybody they put me against. And with jiu jitsu, stand up professional boxers, I was. I had to win every round of everything I had to finish people, and I was doing everything right. And I believed I could be the world champion. And it was me who made that fight happen. I mean, I went out there against Mark Munoz and I put on.

[Daniel Cormier]

Oh, yeah, I remember that still.

[Chris Weidman]

Probably the best I've ever felt in a fight was against that, against Mark. And they were trying to get Mark to fight Anderson Silva because there was all this, you know, talk about how Mark had beat him in sparring or something.

[Daniel Cormier]

I don't remember teammates.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah. And so after that fight, I had met with Lorenzo and Dana and them in Chicago, and I was just like, you know, I Begged him. I'm like, please give me innocent. I'm telling you, only will I beat him. I'll finish him. And they're like, all right. And I didn't hear anything. And then next thing I know, they called me. I just got. Just had a shoulder surgery. I just went through Hurricane Sandy, and they called. I just got done with the rehab, and it was going to be eight weeks, actually. As soon as I got done with the rehab of the shoulder injury, it was basically time to start camp. But I was. I was on a mission, man. Every. There was doubt, you know, I saw his fights. You know, I saw all those highlight knockouts. I seen how he made people. People look stupid out there. And there would be moments where those doubts would come to my mind and the possibility of being embarrassed and, you know, and not accomplishing my goal. But, man, I was anxious all the time because I was constantly thinking about it and constantly running those thoughts out of my mind. You know, I was fighting those thoughts every second of the day.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah. Do you think that those losses, right. Not being able to ultimately accomplish what you accomplished prepared you for those big moments? You carried a chip on your shoulder, knowing, like, man, I want to prove everybody wrong. I was the kid that blew it, right? I was the choker. Now I have an opportunity on the biggest stage of my life to not only not choke, but I can shock the world. Because you were supposed to get beat. You were supposed to get beat bad. I was in the arena that night, and people were holding up Brazilian flags. It was the Fourth of July weekend.

[Chris Weidman]

They handed Brazilian flags out and American flag flags out. There's more Brazilian flags in the arena than American flags on the Fourth of July.

[Daniel Cormier]

And you're young at the time, young in your career and young in age.

[Chris Weidman]

I just went back and we just saw that fight with my son the other day with cj. We were sitting on the couch. We pulled it up. I couldn't believe how young I looked.

[Daniel Cormier]

You're a baby, dude.

[Chris Weidman]

I was a baby.

[Daniel Cormier]

You were a baby.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah. I was only a two. I was only a two to one.

[Daniel Cormier]

Underdog, but you're no. Everybody could tell that you were good.

[Chris Weidman]

I knew. I knew what other people I knew. I mean, we had got, like, GSP came out. He thought I was gonna beat him. There was some big names in the sport that were like, weidman has what it takes, you know, to beat him. But I just. I didn't care. I had to win that fight, you know, I had to beat him. I had to, you know, finally accomplish my goal.

[Daniel Cormier]

When you knocked him out, that place went crazy. When you knocked him out and he went down and you had just beaten a guy that was considered the best in the world, what did you think? Immediately? I know you're all fired up. You're, like, showing your hands and, like, I knew I was gonna do this, but, bro, when he went down, because he was talking and he was talking, and you just kept plugging away like, you never let anything get to you in that moment. Would you ever get the. Did you ever get a thought in there? Go, fuck this dude, man. I want to take his head off, like, while you're fighting.

[Chris Weidman]

So we had all these professional boxers and kickboxers come in, and we'd have them taunt me and put their hands down and mess with me. And I thought I was prepared for that. I didn't let it bother me in training. And then when it was actually happening in there, I kept my composure. I kept my composure. Then he had done it one more time, and this is when the knockout happened, and it was actually me losing my composure. I got pissed. He started doing like, I was winning the fight. You know, I beat him the first round. Second round, I'm landing more strikes. The only thing he was landing was the. He was leg kicking the crap out of me. But I was, you know, not. I had my poker face on, and he. He did it one more time where he started doing, like, you know, the shimmying. Yeah, shimmy. I mean, whatever. He. And I was like, are you joking me? So I. That's why it was like a weird combination, because I. I just wanted to. I think a jab, then I came with a cross. I barely missed, and I just hit him. I. I just wanted to hit him with something. So I hit him with my backfill, and I guess that's what he thought. That was my hook. And then now my hook was coming behind it and just hit him. And I mean, when he went down, it was. You know, it was. It was. It was just surreal. I lost my mind. I was pissed. Like, actually, I wasn't. As soon as I knocked him down and I finished him, I mean, I was ripping my shorts off. I was doing the Derrick Lewis before Derrick Lewis.

[Daniel Cormier]

You were fighting.

[Chris Weidman]

You were.

[Daniel Cormier]

You were.

[Chris Weidman]

You were.

[Daniel Cormier]

You turned into your brother. You were fighting.

[Chris Weidman]

I was like, what, now you want to keep talking shit? Like, I was. I was actually losing my mind. Kind of blacked out. I thought I was gonna beat him by either submission or tko. I did not think I was Knocking him out. We've seen guys. He lets people punch him.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah.

[Chris Weidman]

And he just.

[Daniel Cormier]

His eyes were so good.

[Chris Weidman]

He would come on the cage and. And literally let dudes punch him in the face.

[Daniel Cormier]

Face.

[Chris Weidman]

Sometimes he would even move his head, and it would be nothing. And so for me to knock him out, that wasn't on that, you know. You know, Longo had me believing in my hands, but that wasn't the recipe for success that we were looking for.

[Daniel Cormier]

You knock him out, you guys fight again. Second time, it looks like he's afraid to go to the Octagon. I don't know if you watched that. His walkout took so long, because I think he recognized I'm in there with a dude that I don't know if I can beat. Could you feel that? Like, when you. When you were standing back there waiting, did you ever wonder, like, first off, why is this taking so long? Like, what's happening? And then when you go back and watch it, you could see in his face like, he didn't think he could be. He didn't think he could beat you. It was a different. He had a different approach to that fight, and you could see it all over.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, I was. I was a man on a mission, man. I was so hungry. I was a young, hungry kid with. It was my. It was my dream. He had already accomplished so much. Like, it's hard when you're getting older and you're just winning one title fight after the other and you have this guy and, you know, it's weird to say, but at the time, I was a freaking animal, you know, I was truly an animal. I was in there to completely dominate him. It meant everything in the world to me. That's a tough. That's a tough octagon to walk into, you know? And that second fight, obviously, the leg break was awful.

[Daniel Cormier]

Did it sound loud when you were in there?

[Chris Weidman]

Honestly, I did not know. I get a lot of backlash online, but people, I guess, don't watch the full tape. As soon as he goes down, I think he's hurt. I think. I think I mentally and physically broke him at that point in my mind. Because if you watch the first round in that fight, I drop him. I hit him in the temple. He drops. So now I drop him again on the feet, hard ground, the pound, the whole first round. Second round, I check his first leg kick, first leg kick I ever checked, and it was so much easier to fight him the second time because he had his hands up the whole time. It was like a traditional kickboxer Yep, yep, yep. When his hands were down, it was way more difficult to deal with. You know, you're dealing with your emotion. You're getting like, he's embarrassing you. But he had so much backlash when he got knocked out with his hands down that he came in that second fight doing everything right, you know, and it was just easier to see everything coming. And so before that leg broke, I checked his first leg kick. He was so good at setting those leg kicks up so not so so well that you wouldn't see him. And I was able to see one. I checked it. That's not the time he broke his leg. We move around a little bit more now.

[Daniel Cormier]

He.

[Chris Weidman]

He throws the leg kick without any setting up. You know, he doesn't set it up at all. And, you know, I check it, and I just thought he was mentally and physically broke, and I thought it probably hurt his shin. So I start running around the octagon. I win. And then I heard a scream, you know, from Anderson, and I'm like, why is he screaming like that? And I came over, and then I seen his leg all messed up. And, I mean, you. It was very hard for me to be happy, really. You could. You could watch me in that post fight after my little runaround, I was. My coach is coming in super happy. I'm, like, trying to force a smile a little bit, but it was devastating. It was terrible.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah. You go on this.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah. And then obviously, you know what happens later. But it really gave me a good insight on what he was dealing with. It was just awful.

[Daniel Cormier]

You go on this run of Brazilian champions that you're beating Lyoto Vitor, and then we get to the fight with Luke Rocco. Right. It was very easy. It was very easy to see that you two are on a collision course to fight each other. The fight was going very well early, and then he starts to work his way back into the fight, and then you do that spinning kick. Do you think about that? Like, do you think about, like, what if I did not do that in that moment? And what prompted you to do that in that moment when you're fatigued and you can't really do it at the rate or the speed that you normally would?

[Chris Weidman]

You know, it's not. It's not excuses. It's just I was. I was on my way to lose. I was on my way to losing at some point, whether it was Luke or someone else, very soon in your career. Even before.

[Daniel Cormier]

Why?

[Chris Weidman]

Why even before even Vitor fight. Like, if. If. Because I started. I started well, the injury started really turning up on me. You know, I started having, you know, I was on my way to get into 30 surgeries, you know, where I'm at now. But it was, they just started piling up. My knees were so all the hard.

[Daniel Cormier]

All the I'm going to be the hardest working guy in the room started to really become a negative.

[Chris Weidman]

Yes. So I had to start changing things. I would, you know, now I made money, right. I'm going out to expensive dinners. I had had a rib eye until I was probably, you know, 27 years old. You know, I hadn't never went to an expensive restaurant in my life. All of a sudden I had money. You were doing all these different things. You know, I had sponsors. So you had that aspect of it where I was that hungry kid living in my parents basement that was on. My goal is to provide for my family and become a world champion. So now I already have that all. I defended my belt twice against Anderson, beat Anderson, the defendant against Anderson, then Lyoto Machida. Now I'm going against Vitor Belfort. I had get, I got injured before that fight and then they rebook it for a couple, you know, months later and they were starting to get a lot. I was starting to get a lot of backlash for being like having injuries and having to push out of fights and stuff. And so I decided to do shorter camps. I was like, you know, instead of doing a 10 week camp, I'm doing six week camp. I just started doing less, I started doing less work, you know, to think it's less, less chance of getting injured. But then I would still get injured in a fight, I would still get injured in training camp and then I was. There was no time to take care of my body. It was just. I had to keep grinding and pushing through it and the injuries just started adding up. Going into the Vitor fight, that was the beginning of my demise because I won that fight the first round doing a six week training camp and I wasn't training like I used to at all.

[Daniel Cormier]

Why do you think, why do you think fighters struggle so much when they get everything that they aspire to get? The money, the fame, the freedom, the comfortable life. Why do you think fighters struggle so much when you get everything that you intended to get and more.

[Chris Weidman]

I had a hard time. So after I beat Aniston the first time, I knew I was going to have to rematch him no matter what, like even before the fight. So I had that as my goal. Lyoto Machida fight I wasn't getting the credit, you know, people, you know, his leg broke. They thought it was a freak knockout in the first fight. I still wasn't getting the credit as a UFC champion, and it was pissing me off, so I was like, I gotta dominate Leona. So I was very well prepared for that fight. The then I got a lot of credit. Like, people were like, oh, this dude, he's good. And I accomplished my goal. I became a world champion. I defended a couple at that time, twice. And I was. Now it's just like, all right, I'm just going to keep trying to stay undefeated and not lose anymore. Just keep trying to win belts. It wasn't as much of a goal that I was hungry for. Like, it was in the beginning.

[Daniel Cormier]

Beginning.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, I wasn't. I wasn't, like, as obsessed, you know.

[Daniel Cormier]

To be the world champ.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, I, you know, I did it. You know, I won my national championship, I won my gold, I won, you know, all the things I didn't think I could do.

[Daniel Cormier]

You let go that chip a little bit.

[Chris Weidman]

The chip on my shoulder started starting to fall off.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah.

[Chris Weidman]

And so then going to Luke Rockhold fight, I knew he was. I was. I was back into that old Chris, that old choke artist Chris, because I wasn't working as hard as everybody anymore. And so I was doubting myself. And instead of fighting those doubts out, I was like, it doesn't matter what I think now. All it matters is when I get into Afghan, so I'm not fighting those thoughts every day. And I think eventually it just kind of caught up to me. And, yeah, you know, Luke was the better fighter that night. I thought we both looked like crap. You know, I honestly think we both fought terrible that night.

[Daniel Cormier]

And yeah, after that, it was very difficult to regain and reclaim that championship level. Why. Why was it so hard to. Because again, that thing that you chased, that you had coveted and you had gotten to, it was gone. Now, could you not recapture that want for it? Or were the injuries so bad that you were like, man, I. No matter what I do. Because you should when you recognize I did a six week camp, this time I should go back to doing 12. Did you do that? And if you didn't, how did you really expect it to change?

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, I wasn't. I. I was just.

[Daniel Cormier]

Or did it matter?

[Chris Weidman]

I wasn't thinking like I'm thinking now. I was thinking I got in. So with the Luke Rockhold fight in my head, the reason why I lost is because I did a six week training camp, but in the first week, I broke my foot on Volante's elbow, right? So now I couldn't do the cardio and the footwork and all that stuff like I like I wanted to. So I just, I blamed it on that. But it was more than that. It was a lot more than that. It was so much deeper with all the things we're talking about, you know, like the just mentally being confident comes from hard work. You know, I need to really grind and feel like I'm working harder than everybody else for me to truly be confident. And I wasn't, I wasn't doing that anymore. And then on top of that, the injuries, man, I just, I had a lot of bad injuries that are a problem.

[Daniel Cormier]

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[Daniel Cormier]

You have injuries and then you have an injury like what happened at UFC 261. Twenty seconds into the fight, you throw that kick. It is literally one of the nastiest things I've ever seen in my life. Take me to that moment when you're in the octagon and that happens and how quickly you realize, like, this is really bad. Seriously. Because I've watched your documentary, right, and I've heard you talk about it a little bit and kind of go through the process, the recovery. But in that moment, are you thinking, oh my God, this is what happened to Anderson.

[Chris Weidman]

First thing, that's literally what went through my mind, really. So I, I mean, you know, the long story. Well, I won't make it that long, but. So I never really did calf kicks before. You know, that wasn't a thing, right when we were fighting. And then Anthony Smith came down to spar with me. He was getting ready to fight on the same card and I calf kicked him in practice and he went down. I'm like, bro, that was crazy. One kick, he went down. He said his calf happened to be sore. So I go into that uriah hole fight. We're circling 17 seconds in. I'm just like, I'm gonna kick his calf as hard as I can, see.

[Daniel Cormier]

If I can put him down.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah. And I kicked as hard as I could. I kick. I remember the sounds, and the sound to me was like, holy shit, that was a heart kick. Like he, there's no way he's not feeling that right now. And as I put my leg back, I'm looking him in the eyes. I'm Like, I know you got a poker face on right now. I know that hurt. And then, next thing I know, I don't remember really falling, but I've seen the videos. I remember looking at my leg and on the floor, and I. The first thing was, like, confusion. Like, what the fuck? How was this? My leg. The only time I've ever seen that was Anderson's leg, right? I was in there for that. How the hell is this. My fucking leg there right now? And then I remember. I remember him being in so much pain, and now I had no adrenaline. It was 17 seconds in. I wasn't even sweating yet. So it was like. We walk outside right now and just kind of kick a pole as hard as you can, snap your leg in half. Your bones go through your calf muscles and out your skin. Like, that's. It was the worst pain I could. I can't explain how terrible it was. And I was just. Please give me pain medication, please. Screaming and yelling. I was a little biatched, you know, and it was. It was completely awful. And I didn't know. Yeah. I couldn't believe it. I could not believe that was my leg. I still can't believe it. How weird. How crazy.

[Daniel Cormier]

I couldn't look.

[Chris Weidman]

Unbelievable.

[Daniel Cormier]

I literally could not look at it. If you watch the broadcast, I saw it happen, and I was asking Joe and John, like, I was like, is it bad? And they're like, it's really bad.

[Chris Weidman]

And it also happens to be the only compound for.

[Daniel Cormier]

Because the bone came out.

[Chris Weidman]

So when I seen that, the. Because they didn't show that on the UFC replays only, I think monster energy only had. They have this.

[Daniel Cormier]

I saw it. Yeah, I saw that angle.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, they have an angle where you could see the bones and my tibia or fibula bones flopping, coming out and spiking through like knives. It's pretty nasty. And those blood and everything. The UFC didn't capture that, but I seen that. And when I seen that. And then the doctor's like, he can't feel a pulse. He couldn't feel a pulse on my ankle. And that means, like, you know, you're gonna. You don't have blood supply down there. So now, you know, amputation. I started thinking, like, am I, like, going to be all right? You know, I was just losing my mind. It was. It was a complete nightmare.

[Daniel Cormier]

How hard was that for the family in the back?

[Chris Weidman]

Oh, my.

[Daniel Cormier]

Your wife and your parents like to see that. Like, this board has done so much positively. But to see that. How was that when they got you back through the curtain.

[Chris Weidman]

So they were trying to rush me out because they were worried about possibly losing my leg. And so I just. But I wouldn't leave without my wife. So I was screaming. That's, you know, my wife's name. Like, I'm not leaving until my wife gets here. So she. They ended up finding her way down, and they got her into the ambulance and. Yeah. Got to the hospital. They put me on all the pain medication they could, and they couldn't. The surgeon wasn't coming until the next morning. So now you had the whole night. So they were just pumping me full of morphine, and it just wasn't enough. And then they ended up putting me asleep to put the bones back in, so they. To clean it up, hopefully deal with any possible infections, put the bones back in. And then they wake me up. And the pain was just brutal. I was screaming all night until the surgery. I remember Dana came. Dana comes in, which is really nice of him. And I never asked Dana for anything. The guy gets asked for everything as a champion. I never asked him for anything. I asked him for some extra money. I was pretty timid with that, too. But I just was like, dana, please just make sure I have a good doctor. I want to be able to walk again, play with my kids. My biggest thing. I could cry thinking about it. I'm not going to cry, though. I just wanted to be able to play with my kids again and be able to walk and do things like that. And that's kind of where my mind was at at that point on that night. On that night. And. And even, like, weeks after and weeks after. That was a. That was really it. I wanted to just be able to, like, do that.

[Daniel Cormier]

Life can change very quickly. Yeah, right. And we do this job that we love so much. And then it was hard to watch that, but was even harder was watching you go through the recovery of it. And I remember in the beginning, like, we would call you and we would. I would talk to you on FaceTime at times, and you just sit on this couch, right? You're just kind of sitting on this couch and life is happening around you, Right? Because I'm pretty sure your kids are still doing athletics and everybody's doing things, but you can't really participate in the way that you normally do. When you were in the process or in the midst of recovery, was it harder mentally or physically? Because for me, I think mentally I'd probably have a harder time dealing with not being able to go to CJ's practices, not being Able to go watch your daughter in gymnastics or, you know, it'd be hard.

[Chris Weidman]

It was. Physically, it was the hardest thing I ever been through, for sure. I mean, the pain. The pain, if anytime I had to go get. From laying down to having to go to the bathroom was one of the hardest things you could ever imagine. The pain of the blood rushing down to that leg, you know, because the bones came out and through and everything, the nerves were all damaged, so. So, like, the nerve pain that I would have and the, like, you know, it was the. It was just crazy. Like, nobody should have to feel that type of pain. It was awful. So pain was very bad for a very long time. And my prayer was just like, I just need to be a bearable type of pain. But I was, you know, I'm pretty, like, optimistic, and, you know, I was, you know, but it was. It was tough. It was. Yeah. Just to answer your question, it was tough mentally as. As well as physically.

[Daniel Cormier]

Did you think you were going to come back?

[Chris Weidman]

I wasn't thinking about, like, I wasn't thinking about that for a long time. And then at some point, it started kind of becoming a thing in my head where, like, I need to come back. I need to show that I could come back from this, not just for me, but to my kids and everybody else.

[Daniel Cormier]

And when you did come back, you said, I'm gonna throw a leg kick. It'll be the first thing I do. Yeah, but then you couldn't get yourself to do it.

[Chris Weidman]

Oh, yeah, that's crazy.

[Daniel Cormier]

And you took a whole bunch of leg kicks.

[Chris Weidman]

Damn. Brad Tavares, man, I thought he was a good guy. Calf kicked the crap out of me the whole fight. He broke my other leg. Really? Yeah. He actually fractured my. My tibia on this side. My hairline fractured, not fully fractured, but kicking both my legs and. And, you know, for me, my defense, if someone kicks me, we kick right back. You know, you make him pay for that kick. And he kicked me the first time. And I go to. I was thinking I was going to be able to throw it, and I just could not throw it. I threw it one time in that fight, maybe like, second round. And it was like, you could see if you watch it, like, I was trying to do it, but I wasn't throwing it hard. It was just like. Like I did it. I didn't say I did it, but I couldn't. It was. It was crazy. I couldn't. I couldn't. My body want to do it.

[Daniel Cormier]

You could tell that there was a hesitancy. To do that. But then the following fight against Bruno Silva, all you did was kick. What switched?

[Chris Weidman]

I don't know. I don't know. I just. I was. I needed to get that monkey off my back, you know, I needed to be able to kick again, you know, show I could do it.

[Daniel Cormier]

You go into the next fight and you obviously losing, you walk away. You. You have this idea that you're going to box or do something different. The GFL thing comes up, it doesn't work out. You still haven't gotten any, like, of those boxing things that you talked about prior. Is that still something you want to do? Because generally you still work for the ufc, right? I'm pretty sure you could have stayed in the ufc. I don't know. Were they going to cut you or did you ask for.

[Chris Weidman]

I think they were pretty much. I think they were pretty much done with me. I think I could have probably got one more fight if I really wanted to. I could have pushed for it, but, you know, I was at 41. I was 41, I think, when it was. Yeah, it was this year. Geez. Yeah, I was like 40, 41, I guess it was. My birthday's June, so it was right before that. Are they. Are they in my. Who am I going against to. What am I doing? You know, like, who am I fighting to beat and for what reason? You know, it made. It made no sense, you know.

[Daniel Cormier]

So are you done? Because you signed up for the gfl, right? The game doesn't generally let us choose when we're done. It says to us, we don't really have a need for you anymore.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah.

[Daniel Cormier]

Are you done, Chris? Or like, do you still have a desire to.

[Chris Weidman]

I am. I'm done with mma. My knees just can't bend anymore like they used to. I can't be in those type of scrambles. Jiu jitsu wise. I'll do some jiu jitsu tournaments and stuff like that and like boxing match against, you know, a big name history that I have, you know, some. Somebody I have history with older guys, you know, like myself. Yeah, I like boxing. I wouldn't mind doing like a pro boxing match. I'm staying in shape. I'm working out as, you know, at least five times a week. I told you, every day. But it's more like five times a week, you know. But, yeah, staying healthy and we'll see. We'll see if something comes.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah. You know, on this. This journey, we never do it alone. Right from the early parts of your life, your brother, your father, your mother, Supporting you constantly. You know, your dad became a meme celebrity because he supports you. Essentially, in that moment, he was being a cheerleader. Still my kid. Right. I love my boy. There's nothing in the world that would ever change that. But your family, right? Your wife, Marie, son, C.J. colton, who's a little different. Right. That was tough. That one's a little tough one. And Cassidy, your daughter, they've been a huge part of your journey. What have they meant to you? And how important is it to have that support system from. I mean, he's walked into the octagon and everything. That'd be a special moment, like, to have those things happen for you.

[Chris Weidman]

Oh, man. It's the best thing ever. You try and make me cry. I know. What, you don't?

[Daniel Cormier]

No.

[Chris Weidman]

This must be the end of the interview. You get me to cry. Yeah. No. It means they mean everything in the world to me. You know, without having their support, I wouldn't have been able to do anything. My wife has been the backbone of the family, but of me, you know, my entire career, she's. She's been there having my bag from through some crappy times, you know, tons of ups and downs, and she's always stood by my side, so she's a real one, you know? And my kids, you know, they're everything to me. We just. And we got. I have a new kid now. I adopted this. I was gonna talk about girl, Savannah. She's the most amazing thing ever. Love her to death. She's been such a blessing. Yeah. So my family's everything to me. For me, my legacy is my family. You know, what I could pass down to them. When I think of fighting legacy, at the end of the day, all that disappears, whether it's 10 years, 20 years. I could see. I haven't fought since I was a champion. Being relevant, it slowly goes away. And at the end of the day, that can't be your main motivation, because it is gonna go away at some point, you know, and even after we're gone, you know, how long are people gonna know you? You know, it's probably not as long as anybody, you know, wants to think about, you know, how many presidents do, you know? You know? Yeah.

[Daniel Cormier]

No, you're right.

[Chris Weidman]

You know, it's just.

[Daniel Cormier]

And they're the most important people in the country.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, exactly. So I feel like it's more about the impression and the role model you could be for the people around you, your family, and. And how they go through life and pass that on, moving forward for themselves.

[Daniel Cormier]

As well, has your family taught you about being more resilient, and have they taught you more about fighting just in life in general? Because now you're fighting with a team. It's still a team. Right. But there's as much as you might love Ray Longo and those guys. Right. It's a different love when you fight for that team. And when you watch your boys compete or your daughter compete, like, the nerves, the fear, like, how much have they taught you in that regard? Right. Going from the athlete to now the support system.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah. What I learned from them, especially at their ages, is it's all about the love of the game. You know, just going out there and having fun. Really, as a fighter, that's what you want to feel like when you're in the octagon. You know, you want to feel like you're just having fun. And. Yeah, so I learned a lot from them. And I also, you know, want to practice what I preach. You know, I try to, you know, give them some of my. The things that's helped me mentally over the years.

[Daniel Cormier]

So watching your kids compete. Right. I know. C.J. russell's football. Yeah. What does Colton do?

[Chris Weidman]

Colton, Football, wrestler. Baseball, too, and wrestling and football.

[Daniel Cormier]

All your kids do something. You told me. You told me that in order for you to be as good as you were, you had to be the hardest person in the room. You also told me that you don't want to be the one that's overbearing and pushing, but you recognize that they have to be the hardest worker in the room. Are they the hardest workers in the room? And if they aren't, when do you step in and go, hey, remember my story?

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah. It's getting there. CJ's 13 now, so he's gonna get. He's getting to the point here.

[Daniel Cormier]

Over the next couple, starting to matter.

[Chris Weidman]

Where it's gonna start mattering. I will say he's a very hard worker when he's in that room. He is a very hard worker. I'm proud of him. He. He. He works really hard.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah.

[Chris Weidman]

Colton is a little knucklehead. He's so talented. He needs to start. He'll grind it out, but he needs to learn. He's young. He's 10. And Cassie's a little. She's a savage. She works hard, too. She's a really hard worker.

[Daniel Cormier]

So you're proud?

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah, I'm proud of all my kids. They're amazing in all different ways.

[Daniel Cormier]

So it seems like the perfect family core. Right? You have the mom, you have the dad. You have the three kids, two boys and a daughter. It's ideal. But then you did adopt Savannah. Yeah, we went to that decision. I remember at the apex, you guys were gonna have the baby, and you're all fired up. You're like, I got to do the show, and I got to get going.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah.

[Daniel Cormier]

Because I have to go get my. I have to go meet my daughter.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah.

[Daniel Cormier]

We went to that decision.

[Chris Weidman]

Honestly, my wife. I was good. I was. I'm just go with the flow type of guy. Obviously, I always wanted kids, but we were young when we had it first. And then, you know, I was good with one, then I was good with two. I was good with three, and I was def. I thought we were good. We had, you know, two boys and a girl. Kids are doing great. But my wife, she had complications, some serious complications in, like, 20, 18, and 19 when we were trying to have another kid. And we ended up, you know, kind of. We ended up moving to South Carolina. Things slowed down. We got busy, and I thought we were good. But my wife, she wanted one more, and she had a. She really felt that she had a calling, you know, to. To adopt. And I. I was like, man, that's a lot, but, you know, who's had a kid that they have ever. They've ever regretted? So I couldn't say. I couldn't say no. And I wasn't sure how it was, what it was going to be like, but, man, I can't believe how much I love this kid. When my kids were real young, you know, I was so obsessed with becoming a world champion. I was. I was not around mentally like I am right now with this baby. I'm obsessed with this little girl. She's so cute. Yeah.

[Daniel Cormier]

Has it changed life daily? Every day? Has it just made your life better? Every single day?

[Chris Weidman]

She. When I come home, and she's Immediately. She's smiling at me. She's got the best smile. She. She brightens up my day every moment of the day.

[Daniel Cormier]

And you're gonna get through to about five or six years old, where they just idolize you.

[Chris Weidman]

Oh, it's the best.

[Daniel Cormier]

It's the best time. And then they grow. Like, the rest of these guys were like, yeah, I'm gonna go lay in my room and.

[Chris Weidman]

Yeah. And they're on their phone.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah, it's. It's crazy, man. It's very crazy.

[Chris Weidman]

It goes so fast.

[Daniel Cormier]

It goes.

[Chris Weidman]

I gotta redo.

[Daniel Cormier]

It goes so fast. Yeah. Chris. I always try to ask people this question when they're done sitting with me. I know you said that your children are your legacy. But to your daughter, your new baby, your three children that are older, what do you want them to remember about you? Right from the adversity, from the ups, the downs, the hardships, from seeing their dad stuck on a couch. Like, what do you want them to take and apply into their lives? And how do you want the general fan that watch Chris Weidman, in his heyday, become the world champion to remember about you?

[Chris Weidman]

For my kids, I mean, there's a lot of things that you want to pass on to your kids, but with. With this, I would say, you know, adversity is coming for you, for. For you all. And just don't give up. Stay positive and push through, you know, because that's why injuries are, like, almost a blessing in disguise, because it's. It's just draws parallels to everybody's life. Everybody has adversities that they have to go through constantly. And when life is going good, at some point, something's going to happen where, you know, you get a curveball and some adversity hits, and you got to, you know, take it as a. Take it as, like, a learning experience and find. Find, like, the silver linings and all the tough times.

[Daniel Cormier]

You like living in South Carolina? Carolina, Chris?

[Chris Weidman]

I like it, man. It's really nice. It's very chill. People are very nice. No honking, Food's not bad. And, you know, it's a great place to raise a family. My family's living a great life.

[Daniel Cormier]

Yeah. And from all that, right? Hofstra High School wrestling, knocking out Anderson Silva, becoming a world champion, coming back from that adversity, when you look back, what's the thing that you're most proud of? Is it your shining moment? You winning that NCAA title, that championship, by knocking on Anderson? Or is it you getting up off the couch and showing that even in your darkest moment, you're able to overcome and put yourself back in the position that you are today?

[Chris Weidman]

I think I'd be lying if it wasn't. If I didn't say, you know, winning the World Championship, you know, that was just. That was the goal that I set for myself, and I accomplished it, so. And lucky for me, it happened to be Anderson Silva, who was, you know, one of the greatest of all time and the greatest of all time at that time, you know, so it was a good opportunity.

[Daniel Cormier]

You've had a good career, my friend.

[Chris Weidman]

Thank you.

[Daniel Cormier]

You did a good job.

[Chris Weidman]

You, too.

[Daniel Cormier]

Doing a great job on television also, so thank you. It's awesome, guys. Let's thank Chris Weidman for joining us. This guy is truly inspirational, like I said in the beginning, and he's a person that has given his all to the sport and he continues to do this now behind a broadcast desk. And I think that he has a massive future in this field, as he did in the field where I became a world champion. So Chris, thank you for joining me, man.

[Chris Weidman]

I appreciate it.

[Daniel Cormier]

I appreciate it.

[Chris Weidman]

You're the best.

[Daniel Cormier]

Guys. For Chris Weidman, I'm Daniel Cormier. Thanks for tuning in to the Daniel Cormier Show. We'll see you on the next one. Look, if you smoke or dip, I'm.

[Chris Weidman]

Going to give you a few good.

[Daniel Cormier]

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[Mario Lopez]

Hey, what's up? It's Mario Lopez. Back to school is an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming and kids may feel isolated, a vulnerability that human traffickers can exploit. Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions. Whether you're a parent, teacher, coach or neighbor, check in, ask questions. Stay Connected Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking. Learn the signs and how to [e-mail] blue campaign.

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[Chris Weidman]

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[Daniel Cormier]

This is an iHeart podcast.