The New York Islanders are in the NHL Playoffs this year and have already advanced to the Eastern Conference semi-finals, facing the winner of the Washington Capitals/Carolina Hurricanes series.
Former UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman wanted to tryout for the Islanders at one point, but things didn’t turn out to well.
Weidman told the following story during an appearance on the MSG Network (via Mookie Alexander of Bloody Elbow):
“When I was deciding if I was going to do mixed martial arts, I had just tried out for the 2008 Olympics for wrestling. But I got injured before the trials and I was at a crossroads whether to start MMA or do the wrestling world teams in between and then try out for the Olympics in 2012. I had then just met an Islanders players out somewhere and it sparked a memory. I haven’t played hockey since 6th grade, but I remembered that I was really good at it. So I thought I could figure out mentally and physically how to get that back. So I said I’m going to try out for the Islanders. I bought all this hockey equipment and thought it would maybe take about 6 months until I’m ready to compete with these NHL guys. So I went down to the rink and there were a bunch of high school kids playing a pick-up game. I got on the ice with them and quickly realized it was going to take way more than 6 months to be Islanders caliber. It was a rude awakening. This is going to take awhile. So that was the end of my hockey career and then I got into fighting.”
Things didn’t work out too bad for the fighter, because Weidman would become the UFC Middleweight Champion and would defeat former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva twice in a row. Weidman was last seen in action at UFC 230 in November of 2018, suffering a third round knockout loss to Ronaldo Souza.
