After 15 years as a professional, Chris Weidman had a new experience on UFC 309 fight day in New York.

On his way to the shuttle for his trip to the arena and a clash with Eryk Anders, the former UFC middleweight champion received a call from UFC CBO Hunter Campbell that his opponent had pulled out of the fight due to food poisoning. Weidman, 40, was notified at 5:30 p.m. local time, catching him as close as possible to entering the Octagon without actually doing it.

As tough as some of his defeats were in his 23-fight career, this experience was a new pain.

“Totally devastated,” Weidman said on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “I felt great at this training camp, the 12-week camp, and the weight cut was definitely a tough weight cut. I got through that part that you wait all day for, anticipating the struggle and the pressure that comes with it. And then everything.’ When all of a sudden you get that call before your walk and you’re ready to rip off the Band-Aid and go to the Octagon and put on a show and it’s just taken away from you, I couldn’t believe it.

“Part of me thought, ‘Is this a joke?’ This has never happened to me before, so it’s something new after all these years.

“I was super excited to fight in New York in front of all those people,” he continued. “I had two fights at Madison Square Garden and we know how those (losses) turned out, so it was like the third time was the charm. I was ready for some retribution and redemption. It was taken from me.”

New York and Weidman have not gotten along since he is 1-3 in the state and all three losses have come by increasingly devastating knockouts. Madison Square Garden in particular suffered brutal losses to Weidman at the hands of Yoel Romero and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza shortly after his title reign ended in late 2015.

“The All-American” returned to winning ways in his last fight after a two-fight skid, defeating Bruno Silva by technical decision last March. Weidman admitted that he probably would have retired after the fight, which he lost. Luckily for him, he performed better than expected, just one fight after his catastrophic leg break against Uriah Hall in 2021.

The Anders pairing was rebooked for this Saturday’s UFC 310, but only after Weidman learned there was an attempt to repeat Dan Ige’s famous late jump in from UFC 303.

“I saw him the next day. I saw him walking through the hotel lobby and stuff,” Weidman said of Anders. “We chatted a bit. Apparently he and his teammate (Marcus McGhee) also got food poisoning.

“Based on what (Anders) said, what the UFC said, he told them right from the start that he had a stroke and couldn’t hold his hands in the morning. I think he said he wasn’t going to do that. “I could fight, but they wanted him to assert himself and try to get into the locker room and see how he felt when he was in the locker room . I think that was ultimately the goal.

“(The UFC) also said they had been trying to find another opponent all day. They were looking for 205-pounders who were either fighting that day or anyone in the area who was trying to handle one of those Dan Ige-like situations, but apparently the new one.” I think that day her They tried their best to find some kind of fight for me, and I guess it was difficult to deal with the New York Commission.

After all the turmoil, Weidman revealed that he could essentially decide what and when his rebooked performance would take place. If UFC 309 wasn’t viable, then the following weekend’s UFC global event in Macau was, as was UFC 310 in December and UFC 311 in January.

Ultimately, Weidman didn’t want to get out of fighting shape or repeat a grueling weight cut. Therefore the fight remained against Anders, but at a catchweight of 195 pounds.

“The UFC was really good to me: ‘We can get you on the Macau card, December, do you want to fight in January? Do you want to fight in March?’” “All these different options, it’s nice,” Weidman said. “I chose this one because I’m healthy at the moment and I could have chosen one later to recover from camp and so on, but then there’s a chance I’ll get injured and then I will regret it.”

“I feel great at the moment. I simply extended my storage a bit by reducing the weight. Now let’s make a catchweight. They said I could fight pretty much any weight I wanted. I could.’ I did 205, but I said let’s do 195 just so I don’t feel lazy and eat whatever I want. I need to stay disciplined for the next few weeks, so 195.

When it comes to compensation, that’s a slightly different story – and a bit more complex for Weidman.

With a UFC tenure dating back to 2011, the Serra Longo product no longer competes under a traditional show-win contract. Weidman receives a guaranteed purse with a lump sum payout, without the possibility of a win bonus. Even though he misses payday because of his opponent, he doesn’t quite get what he should deserve. But it is handled differently, he says.

Come fight night on Saturday, everything is expected to be sorted out.

“They’re going to take care of me, that’s what I’m saying,” Weidman said. “You do something for me. I will make more money. I’m not getting my full budget, I’m going to put out what’s hard.”

“You show up, do everything right and don’t understand it, but they’re giving me the opportunity to fight here again very soon to get myself healthy again. So I can’t complain too much. They’re still going on.’ To connect with something from that fight, for everything I’ve been through on the journey and my coaches and everyone out there. Then a few weeks later I get the opportunity to fight here Then I don’t pay what happens if Anders doesn’t show Up this time.