Big Time
According to all sources, in early 2011 Weidman was literally this close to signing with Bellator. It would’ve been a two-year contract to enter into their 2011 Middleweight tournament. The formalities were basically done until Weidman’s lawyer uncle read into the contract further and found a clause that would allow Bellator to extend it by two or three years.
It was a classic shady move, classic Bjorn Rebney.
Weidman baulked on the contract, but better things were on the horizon. The UFC had their third Versus show booked for March 3rd, 2011 in Louisville, Kentucky. Maiquel Falcao was scheduled to face Alessio Sakara on the four-fight main card, and when he pulled out Rafael Natal stepped in, only to injure his knee. With just two weeks to go, Weidman got the call and accepted the fight.
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Sakara was coming in on a three-fight win streak, although he hadn’t fought in a year, and on SkyBet at least, he was the betting favourite. So on the night of the event, I decided to lay some money down on Weidman, putting my faith in the couple of clips I’d seen and the word that was going around online.
I didn’t regret the bet.
Weidman dominated the Italian using his wrestling and top control game and gained 30-27 scores from all three judges. It wasn’t the most entertaining performance but Weidman had shown that he belonged in the UFC. Three months later he was back in the UFC Octagon, again as an injury replacement. This time he put Jesse Bongfeldt away with a standing guillotine choke inside one round.
Tom Lawlor was next up for Weidman, and interestingly enough he’d been in the same ADCC tournament in 2009 that had garnered Weidman so much hype. They hadn’t met there but when they clashed in the Octagon Lawlor was wildly overmatched and was dispatched with a first-round D’Arce choke.
Weidman didn’t just belong in the UFC; he was living up to all the hype he’d gotten prior to arriving.
