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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Chris Weidman's got the opportunity of a lifetime on July 6, a fight against UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva in just his tenth career fight and after only five fights in the UFC. However, were it not for some allegedly shady moves from Bellator MMA in 2011, Weidman wouldn't even be in the UFC.
Weidman explained this week to the New York Post that he was very close to signing with Bellator after a 4-0 start to his career. The deal was so close to being done that he had a copy ready to sign.
But while he was out to dinner with family, his uncle - an attorney - gave the contract one last cursory glance as a formality. That's when Weidman found a change which would lead him to feel "betrayed" by the organization before he had even signed with them. Weidman claims that he was told by Bellator that the contract would be a two-year deal, but once he had the contract in hand, it contained clauses which could have extended the deal to three or four years.
"They never told me that. It was a little sneaky," Weidman said. "I was so upset. I was so let down. I was excited to go to Bellator."
That slip-up by Bellator led Weidman to the Octagon, where he quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with, winning all five of his UFC fights in a 16-month span. That five-fight winning streak, along with some inopportune injuries to his fellow middleweights, has now led him to the fight with Silva, and all because Bellator tried to float one past him.
"Everything happens for a reason," Weidman said. “Thank God I took my time and didn't just rush into it."
Penick's Analysis: As we've seen from some other fighters giving their experiences with Bellator, this is an easy story to believe. The old "say one thing, do another" bit happens quite a lot in this sport, even from the UFC, but if this indeed happened the way Weidman described, they cost themselves a great fighter by pulling that move. It all worked out for Weidman, though, as he'd still be in Bellator today had he signed that deal, and instead he'll headline one of the UFC's bigger pay-per-view weekends this July against the best fighter in the world at 185 lbs.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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