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Breaking down the career of Chris Weidman, and answering: Was he hype, a has-been, or a victim of the system? And really, it's all three.
He came in at the right time to beat Anderson Silva. His style matched up just right to do what Dan Henderson, Travis Lutter, and Chael Sonnen almost did but couldn't, which was to dethrone the king. But what happens after a lifetime of weight cuts? Several last minute UFC fights where you pass out and almost die to make weight, where there is not the ideal weight division for you, where you only know how to over-train, where you have to fight five five-minute rounds for title fights and non-title main events? Where you can't be on replacement therapy for low testosterone and you can't rehydrate through IV? Where your best years might already be behind you before you ever step into the Octagon?
This is the story of Chris Weidman, someone who had the potential to be greater than Anderson Silva, but never lived up to it. However, this is also the story of many fighters who may have never achieved the same heights as Chris Weidman. And how the whole system of UFC MMA does not look out for the health of their fighters, but instead, for mega-fights at the cost of fighters' longterm careers.
