Chris Weidman already was in a state of uncertainty.
He lost the UFC middleweight championship back in 2015 and dropped three of his next four fights, all by knockout.
Last October he moved to light heavyweight, hoping to resuscitate his career, and he was KO’d in less than two minutes by a surging Dominick Reyes.
He signed on for a May 2 bout against Jack Hermansson, back down at middleweight, seeing it as an opportunity to get back on track.
But now Weidman is not so sure that bout will go on.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced the UFC to postpone its next three events, and the 35-year-old from Long Island, New York, believes the chance of the Hermansson fight taking place as scheduled “is probably slim.”
“I’ve got to imagine it’s happening, in my head, for training purposes. But it’s a tough one to believe at this point,” Weidman (14-5) told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani on Wednesday during a live appearance on Instagram. “Hermansson, he’s in Europe, so the chance of him getting out here — we’re six weeks out at this point — is probably slim. I don’t know how this is going to change. Nobody knows.”
The fight is scheduled for Oklahoma City. Hermansson (20-5) lives and trains in Oslo, Norway.
Weidman was in Oklahoma City last week, helping to promote his upcoming bout, and was at Chesapeake Energy Arena for the Thunder-Jazz game that the NBA canceled after Utah center Rudy Goebert tested positive for the coronavirus.
Weidman was ushered out of the arena with the rest of the fans.
“We could see the panic on some people’s faces,” he said. “It was crazy.”
Now isolated at home with his wife and children, working out in his basement, Weidman has heard nothing definitive from the UFC about the status of his scheduled fight.
“I don’t know what the UFC plans on doing,” he said. “I don’t think they know what they’re going to do yet. Everything’s kinda up in the air right now.”
One thing Weidman does know: He needs a win, whenever his next fight happens. That’s why he opted to move back down to 185 pounds, where he has an edge in size and strength.
“I figured, you know what? Let me just go where I feel comfortable,” he said. “Let me just get this W.”