Gegard Mousasi believes that Chris Weidman, staring down the barrel of another lengthy layoff, should consider retirement.
That’s what he told MMAFighting.com, promoting his own Bellator bout this Friday night. Weidman is due to undergo yet another corrective surgery following his gruesome leg break sustained against Uriah Hall earlier this year. Weidman, full of fighting spirit, is adamant that he wants to return to action as soon as possible, but Mousasi has his doubts.
Mousasi to Weidman: “I would retire”
“It’s not nice to see a fight like that. You don’t wish that on anybody. If it was me and if I had 29 surgeries, I would say this is not good.
And especially if you get knocked out three or four times in a row, and then you break your leg in a bad way where it’s going to take a year to recover, at this age — he’s a little bit older than me I think, 37 maybe, and he’s going to come back at 38 or 39 — it’s difficult to come back.
And then how long are you going to continue? At 38 or 39, you’re over your peak. You know what I mean? It’s not like you’re going to get better, especially coming off losses, losses, losses.
That’s my opinion. I wouldn’t continue. If I had a serious injury like that, I would right away stop fighting at his age. At his age, I would retire.”
Weidman’s career was already on life support before this injury. Although in his heyday he held the 185-pound title, defeated Anderson Silva twice (including once when Silva broke his leg, much as Weidman did), in recent years he’s faced serious setbacks.
He’s lost six out of his last eight fights, all of which were knockout or TKO losses. Chris Weidman hasn’t strung together a win streak since 2015. In fact, all of Weidman’s career losses came since 2015.
Mousasi also pointed out that the mental aspect of the fight game may wear on Weidman, who will be nearing 40 by the time he’s anywhere near the Octagon.
“When I was younger, I would go in there, I would never think about injuries and whatever because everything was going well.
But if you have many fights and you get injured and you have setbacks and whatever, and then when you have to fight, you take those experiences into the fight, so it’s a little bit more difficult.
And I think for him also, if you have an injury like that, it will always be a trauma. Even if he comes back, it will always be in the back of his mind, ‘I can get injured, something bad can happen to me.’ So that’s why I’m saying, at his age, it’s more difficult.”
Do you think Chris Weidman should retire, or does he have some good years left in him? Let us know in the comments.
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