UFC
Chris Weidman fires back at Anderson Silva's camp, criticizes interest in GSP, Nick Diaz bouts
Jul 30, 2012 - 11:55:17 AM Chris Weidman fires back at Anderson Silva's camp, criticizes interest in GSP, Nick Diaz bouts

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Chris Weidman may be the most recent entrant into the UFC Middleweight Championship discussion, but he certainly feels he's the most qualified, and he's taking offense to some of the negative vibes being sent out from Silva's camp. One of Silva's co-managers, Jorge Guimaraes, called out the entirety of the middleweight field in an interview with Tatame.com, calling the up and coming challengers "amateur kids" and suggesting the idea of them challenging was "a joke."

Suffice it to say, Weidman has a response to that.

"I read [those comments] and it's kind of crazy. The managers they have no right to start putting down professional athletes," Weidman said in an interview with MMAWeekly.com. "He put me, and [Alan] Belcher, and [Tim] Boetsch down and he's trying to draw attention away from the fact that I'm the No. 1 contender, and then called us amateurs, and we're all top ten fighters."

"This is what we do for a living and then you have some manager in Brazil who's calling us amateur fighters and calls me a joke, it's definitely a little crazy and I know I wouldn't want my manager speaking about other fighters like that."

That's not the only issues he's having with Silva's management these days. Not only does he feel overlooked and out of the conversation, but he takes exception to the names being thrown out ahead of him and others in the division, including welterweights Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz.

"It's like they're trying to avoid my name being mentioned at all for the title shot. They're trying to deflect with other guy's names so people can start thinking about them as possibilities, but even guys they're choosing to call out like GSP or Diaz, they're both welterweights," Weidman said. "I mean GSP, let's start with him. The guy is coming off ACL surgery, we don't even know for sure when he's fighting, and when he does fight he's fighting Carlos Condit for the welterweight title. You never know what's going to happen and best-case scenario he could fight again around May. So if anything, fight me next, if you beat me then you get your shot with GSP. You're just calling out a 170 pounder coming off ACL surgery."

"Then Nick Diaz, he's another guy he'd have a size advantage over, he's another good name but the guy's not going to be cleared till February. That's just crazy. Nothing to say about me, who has proven to be the No. 1 contender. I beat two top five guys in the division in a row, and no one's come close to doing that, especially in the fashion I did in my last fight against Mark Munoz."

Ultimately, Weidman's just confused by the names being thrown out, and doesn't know why the Champ wouldn't want to take on the biggest challenges possible.

"The guy's a champion of 185, he should be fighting the contenders," Weidman said. "You don't call out guys that aren't going to be able to fight forever and guys that are lighter than you. Why don't you call out Jon Jones? That makes sense, I'm sure a lot of people would watch, I'd love to watch too. If you're not going to fight him, fight me, I'm ready to go...

"I feel like I've made it blatantly obvious with this last fight that I'm ahead of the pack. The champ should want to fight that guy."

Penick's Analysis: Weidman's definitely not the big money pick right now. He is arguably the most deserving from a sporting perspective with what he accomplished against Munoz, but that doesn't mean he's going to be drawing big business for the UFC in this fight. His fight against Munoz came on Fuel, meaning it was seen by significantly smaller number of viewers than any of the other names being talked about here. That's the issue at hand, and though he has his case for the fight, if the UFC doesn't give it to him that's not going to be entirely surprising. With the fights they've been booking, he's got to be in the conversation right now, and he's got a point about Silva's camp eying GSP and Diaz fights right now from a sporting perspective, but in MMA that doesn't always go a long way.