After suffering a brutal injury at UFC 261, some have wondered if Chris Weidman will ever fight again. Anthony Smith seems to think that he will, and that his return will an inspiration to many.
Smith trained with Weidman ahead of his UFC 261 bout with Uriah Hall. Prior to this rematch, the former middleweight champion was vocal about how good he felt, both physically and mentally, even saying he felt good enough to get the belt back.
Unfortunately things would go astray with the first strike thrown in the fight. Chris threw a leg kick at Uriah, who checked it, breaking both his tibia and fibula in the process, and even making Chris fear needing an amputation.
Anthony Smith Think Chris Weidman Will Return
The severity of the injury that Chris Weidman suffered could easily be the end of his career, even though he has the intention to fight again. Anthony Smith seems to think that this will be the case, too.
Speaking in a recent episode of his SiriusXM radio show, the light heavyweight urged fans to send encouraging messages to Chris. Furthermore, he said that Chris would return and look better than ever.
“Chris Weidman is the best guy I’ve ever trained with, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my friend. It’s just fact. He was as good as I’ve ever seen him, going into that fight,” Smith said.
“For me to see him that good going in, and that ready, and mentally in a good place, strong, his weight cut was good, just seeing that, that’s what’s crushing. It’s just like what could have been that night, and what could that have moved on to?
“I just urge people to not only just reach out to him, and motivate him, and let him know that people are watching and hoping he’s okay, but don’t write him off. You can sense that as a fighter, you can sense that people don’t believe in you anymore, they don’t think you’re coming back, so they start to trail off,” Smith continued.
“It’s easy when it first happens to send the Instagram comment, or comment on Twitter and be motivating, but it trails off and it doesn’t happen as much two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight months later. So if you have a second and you actually care, shoot those things out there because they really do help, especially when you’re laid up on a couch and you’re reading it all.
“So don’t give up on Chris yet, don’t count him out. I think he’s going to be a huge inspiration to people in the coming year.”
🎙️ "I think Chris is coming back no matter what…don't write him off."
Anthony Smith (@lionheartasmith) gives his opinion on what the future holds for @chrisweidman with @RJcliffordMMA.
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/0AGyOk6hKn
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) May 20, 2021
Do you think that Anthony Smith is right, and that Chris Weidman will make a return to the sport?
