Sherdog’s Top 10: Phenoms

Chris Weidman wasted little time in ascending to the top at 185 pounds. | Photo: Keith Mills/Sherdog.com

10. Chris Weidman

The current UFC middleweight champion might not have started his career at a particularly young age by the standards of the sport, but the speed with which he ascended through the ranks and the sheer volume of hype that attached itself to his rise marks him as one of the sport’s true phenoms.

An NCAA All-American wrestler at Hofstra University, Weidman first got into jiu-jitsu upon completion of his collegiate career and shortly thereafter MMA proper. He trained from the beginning of his career under Matt Serra and Ray Longo on Long Island, one of the best possible situations for a serious prospect to fall into. Shortly after his first fight in 2009, word started to get out about the impossibly talented kid the former UFC welterweight champion had found. His performance at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships was likewise impressive, and his highly competitive match with multiple-time world champion Andre Galvao exposed the grappling circuit to the true extent of his talents. Hip-tossing the much more experienced Galvao during an attempted back-take gave some small hint at the creativity and physicality that Weidman would shortly display in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Four fights in Lou Neglia’s Ring of Combat organization prepared Weidman for the highest levels of competition, and by the end of 2010, he was the consensus top middleweight prospect in the world. He defeated future UFC middleweights Costas Philippou and Uriah Hall, the latter by knockout, to punch his own ticket to the promotion. It took him only five fights to secure a title shot against Anderson Silva, and only four years into his career, he had defeated an all-time great and become a champion. That is an incredibly quick rise to the top, and it shows just how rare a talent Weidman really is in MMA.

Number 9 » It is easy to forget that the Canadian is still only 25 years old, with some of the best years of his career ahead of him. We have yet to see how good he can truly become.