Former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva was supposed to face Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 212, but Gastelum was pulled from the card due to a potential USADA violation.
The promotion did offer another former UFC Middleweight Champion in Chris Weidman a third fight with Silva, but the New York native turned the opportunity down.
“The UFC was asking me if I would fight Anderson Silva. This was, I think three and a half weeks before that fight was going on. In Rio. And I’m just like ‘no’. I was still getting things checked out on my body, and going to different doctors,” Weidman said on The MMA Hour.
Weidman did defeat Silva in their first two UFC encounters, those wins came at UFC 162 and UFC 168.
There was one way that Weidman would have fought Silva again, which was the fight would have to be moved to New York.
“I had just gone to Vegas, got it all checked out. I already beat the guy twice, I’m going to take a fight on short notice and head to his hometown to fight him? I’m like ‘yeah, that’s not happening. If you want me to fight Anderson again, bump it up a couple of weeks, if you want to do it in Nassau Coliseum or some other time, but I’m not going to do it on short notice,” says Weidman.
UFC On Fox 25 takes place on Saturday, July 22 from the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York with Chris Weidman and Kelvin Gastelum headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which airs live on Fox.
