‘Elephant In The Room’

Chris Weidman had some explaining to do when the former UFC middleweight champion ended one of the shortest retirements ever to get selected during the Global Fight League 2025 Draft on Friday night (official results HERE).

Last weekend, Weidman was part of the broadcast team that helped countdown UFC 311 from Los Angeles, California. During the UFC 311 weigh ins show, Weidman was given a few minutes to address the camera and proceeded to announce his retirement from UFC. Most fight fans took it as if Weidman was stepping away from all combat sports, but he specifically kept saying “UFC.” See it below:

Weidman ended up posting the below message to X following his “retirement speech” and it confused fight fans even more. Check it out below:

“The tribute that The @UFC created for my retirement on the weigh-ins show completely blew me away,” wrote Weidman last weekend. “I’m extremely grateful for what they put together to honor me and my career.”

On Friday, the GFL 2025 Draft unfolded and it was eventually revealed that Weidman was selected by Team New York to be an active fighter on the roster. The draft selection came as a shocking surprise to fight fans who were under the impression that Weidman retired just six days ago, making it one of the shortest “retirements” ever.

The confusion was substantial, which prompted Weidman to explain the situation and clear up any questions fight fans might be asking. Here’s what he had to say during the GFL 2025 Draft broadcast:

“The elephant in the room is I just retired from UFC. A lot of people thought I was done fighting,” explained Weidman. “I didn’t know. I thought maybe I’m done fighting. I was kind of open to other opportunities outside of the UFC, but it had to be good. This is a league with a lot of guys I have a history with. You got Luke Rockhold, you got Gegard Mousasi, you got Uriah Hall.

“Rockhold was my first loss ever. That was a tough pill for me to swallow. We were supposed to rematch a bunch of times in UFC, but it never happened. So that would be a fight I’d love to have.

“It’s older dudes that I have a lot of history with. I love to compete and we make a whole lot of money. It’s not something I really feel like I can say no to. It’s really an exciting time for me.”

Weidman, 40, is coming off a disappointing TKO loss to Eryk Anders at UFC 310 last December. The former UFC middleweight champion is only 3-7 in his last 10 fights since losing his UFC title back in 2015 and is doing anything he can to keep his career going. Making a jump to GFL and serving as Team New York’s leader makes sense for now.