Chris Weidman will lock horns with Ronaldo Souza at UFC 230. (Photo: Josh Hedges/Zuffa/Getty)
UFC 230 is now available on Amazon Prime.
As Weidman prepares for his battle with Souza, here are some of the numbers that have come to define him:
2: Times selected as an NCAA All-American wrestler at Hofstra University. Weidman placed third nationally as a senior and later became an instructor at his alma mater.
31: Years of age when he earned his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Renzo Gracie and Matt Serra. Weidman competed at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships, where he held his ground against the great Andre Galvao.
4: Fights under the Ring of Combat flag to start his professional MMA career. Weidman stopped all but one of his opponents in the promotion and laid claim to the middleweight title against future “Ultimate Fighter” finalist Uriah Hall.
3: Full rounds fought in his Octagon debut opposite Alessio Sakara. They met at UFC on Versus 3, where Weidman swept the scorecards with 30-27 nods from all three judges.
1: Submission attempt needed to polish off Jesse Bongfeldt at UFC 131. Weidman prompted the tapout with a standing guillotine choke at 4:54 of Round 1.
5: Straight UFC wins to set the stage for his championship showdown with Anderson Silva. Weidman ended Silva’s historic reign at 185 pounds in the UFC 162 main event and then defeated “The Spider” in their rematch.
36: Significant strikes landed on Silva in their two bouts at UFC 162 and UFC 168, according to FightMetric. Silva tallied 22 in return.
126: Significant strikes surrendered to Rockhold at UFC 194. Weidman only mustered 48 of them before losing via fourth-round technical knockout, the defeat costing him the undisputed middleweight title.
2: Consecutive defeats after losing the championship to Rockhold. Weidman was stopped by Yoel Romero and Gegard Mousasi.
6: Post-fight performance bonuses won in the UFC. Weidman has earned “Performance of the Night” and “Submission of the Night” honors once, while taking home “Knockout of the Night” and “Fight of the Night” awards twice.
6: First-round finishes to his credit. Weidman’s victims were Bongfeldt, Hall, Reubem Lopes, Mike Stewart, Tom Lawlor and Vitor Belfort.
10: Stoppage wins on his resume. Weidman has racked up six victories by knockout or technical knockout and four more by submission. He has put away a number of high-level opponents in the UFC, including Silva (twice), Belfort, Lyoto Machida, Mark Munoz and Kelvin Gastelum.
3: Losses on his ledger, all of them coming in the UFC.
8: Years as a professional mixed martial artist. Weidman made his debut at Ring of Combat 23 on Feb. 20, 2009.
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