Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman aiming for Paulo Costa fight in January 2021
Chris Weidman has claimed that Derek Brunson reportedly turned down a potential booking against him. Therefore, he is looking to fight Paulo Costa instead.
The Former UFC middleweight champion snapped his two-fight losing streak back in August by defeating Omari Akhmadov via unanimous decision. Following that win, Chris Weidman wanted to face a top contender in the middleweight division and was then offered a fight against Brunson next.
However, according to Weidman, Brunson turned down the fight.
Derek Brunson wants to fight middleweights ranked higher that Chris Weidman
In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Weidman said that apparently, Brunson doesn't think that the former is "worth his presence". Weidman said that Brunson wants to fight higher ranked fighters in the division.
Chris Weidman is currently ranked at #9 in the middleweight division while Brunson is two spots ahead of him.
“They had offered me Brunson for mid-January which is when I told them I’d be ready. I said yes, and the UFC said alright, it is not a done deal we have to talk to Brunson. From what I’ve heard, he turned that fight down, he didn’t want to fight me. Supposedly, I don’t think he thinks I am worthy of his presence at this point. He is trying to fight guys higher in the rankings which is crazy to me. I just think it would be a good fight.”
Since Brunson has turned him down, Chris Weidman believes that a fight against former #1 contender Paulo Costa makes sense for him at the moment. Weidman also expressed the desire to fight Khamzat Chimaev.
Check out the full interview of Chris Weidman below.
Weidman recently said that he wants to fight the UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, which means that the former champ believes he has one last title run left in him.
A win against someone like Costa will definitely go a long way towards serving that purpose.