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UFC welterweight Matt Brown doesn't believe Chris Weidman needs to retire just yet.
Weidman made his return from a gruesome leg break when he suffered a unanimous decision defeat to Brad Tavares in the featured preliminary bout of UFC 292 this past weekend.
Despite not taking major damage on the right leg that was broken two years ago, the former middleweight champion's left leg was chopped up and compromised by Tavares throughout thanks to the latter's kicking game plan. UFC president Dana White later claimed one of Weidman's cruciate ligaments were torn and urged the 39-year-old to call it a day.
But for Brown, Weidman is still more than capable of doing big things in the sport — he just came up against a bad matchup in Tavares.
“I give credit to Brad Tavares and hopefully Weidman can come back and fight some more guys,” Brown said (via MMA Fighting). “I don’t agree with Dana. I don’t think Chris needs to retire. I think he can come back and still do great things in the sport, just don’t fight Brad Tavares.
“The dude is a bad matchup for you.”
If anything, Brown believes Tavares deserves major credit for his game plan against Weidman.
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“Everything I’ve been reading on Twitter and people talking about is everything about Chris Weidman and his leg,” Brown added. “I love Chris Weidman, hung out with him a few times, amazing guy but I have not heard near the credit for Brad Tavares in this fight. I think Brad Tavares did the right thing and I give the credit to him more so than Chris Weidman’s injury.
“I think had the injury never happened, the way Brad Tavares looked Saturday and the way that he fought would have won that fight maybe at any time in Chris Weidman’s career. I thought Brad just played a perfect game plan.”
As for White's plea for Weidman to retire? The welterweight veteran completely disagrees as he feels Weidman is still capable of getting back in the middleweight top 10.
“I’m not sure why Dana is saying that, but he’s entitled to his own opinion,” Brown said. “Dana is a strong, opinionated guy. It is what it is. Dana, he likes to see guys performing at their best, especially the guys that he likes. He doesn’t like to see guys go out there and not perform at their best. That’s why I can’t say it [enough] times, I think it was Brad Tavares.
“I think Chris Weidman had the potential to perform very well but Brad Tavares took that away from him. It wasn’t Chris Weidman going out injured or anything. It was simply Brad Tavares was on point that night. I still think [Weidman] can do big things. I think he can get back to the top 10. I think he has that in him to do it. It’s just going to be a very long road now.”
For now, Weidman will have to focus on recovery.
