The Daniel Cormier Show - Chris Weidman on beating Anderson Silva to become UFC champion, BRUTAL leg injury

Former UFC champion and MMA legend Chris Weidman sits down with DC in the fourth episode of The Daniel Cormier Show! Cormier and Weidman talk about his two fights against Anderson Silva, and what it was like to both become champion and see such a gruesome leg injury. Chris also reveals his tough childhood with his brother, talking about how he would get physically and emotionally bullied to the point that him and his friends PUNCHED his broken collarbone! Weidman also breaks down his loss to Luke Rockhold and the brutal leg injury HE SUFFERED in the UFC 261 fight against Uriah Hall. Plus DC and Chris relive his road back to the octagon, his early wrestling days in high school and at Hofstra, and so much more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What's up, guys, Welcome to a brand new
episode of The Daniel Cormier Show, brought to you by
Total Wireless, the official wireless provider of UFC. They're in
your corner with a limited five G data that will

(00:22):
not slow you down. Hey, today, I'm joined by a
special guest. I believe that this man is one of
the most impressive and resilient champions that our sport has
ever seen. He is the FUM Middleweight Champion, Chris Widman.
This is a kid from Baldwin, Long Island. He wrestled
his way to becoming an All American at Hastra before

(00:44):
he shot the world and he knocked out Anderson Silva
to become UFC champion. Chris Widman's story is one where
it showed he had to battle through career threatening injuries.
He was able to come back and fight when no
one thought he could. This dude's built a life defined
by grit, his family's faith, and uh he's proud of

(01:06):
all of that and I'm proud to call him one
of my friends. So welcome in, my man, Chris Wideman.
You like that?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, Yeah, I mean I might let to say there
was a teleprompter, but you actually went off. You went
off of the telepone. Yeah, that's talent.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Most of the time, or skilled, you know, man, Chris, Yeah, impressed. Hey,
I I talked a little bit about growing up in
Long Island. What was that like, right, because so many people,
we all have different upbringings. Obviously we all end up
in the same place here, but obviously we are born
and brought brought up differently. I was growing up in

(01:43):
Long Island with you and your sister and your your brother, who,
by the way, was literally the definition of the eighties bully,
which we will get into a little bit later.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, man, I loved I had a great upbringing, great parents,
super supportive, loving, They were at everything of mine, every
sporting event, they were showing up. Grew up in like
a diverse town. It was like in the area people
thought it was like pretty tough. I didn't think it
was anything crazy. There was one worse. But I grew up.

(02:15):
I grew up. Can they hear anything? Yeah? I grew up,
you know, fighting a lot, you know, like you, Like
you mentioned, my brother was was big, strong, you know,
three years older, athletic. He was pretty much better than
me at everything. He was smart too, and but he
would also put it on me. He was he was

(02:35):
he could be mean.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Why why why do you think so a man? He was?

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Uh, he was just a different character. Like as a friend,
he was a great friend, very loyal and you you
you know, Uh, he'd have your back to the death.
He'd do anything for you. But for me when it
came down to, like me getting beat up by other people,
he would have my back. Like there's one story that
comes to mind. I was it's funny we're talking about

(03:01):
this now, but there was a bunch of these crips,
you know, you know, he got the crips and the bloods. Yeah,
we were from there was there was really only crips.
There was a couple other towns that had bloods, you know,
and who knows what they really were, but at the
end of the day, they could consider the some themselves
crips and they were. They were messing me, and I
was basically like, you know, you guys could you guys
could beat me up, but once you come down to

(03:22):
my house, my brother would beat you guys asses. Yea,
And so I brought because they were older, so I
brought them to my house and I'm like, I get inside.
I'm like, Charlie, these kids are outside, they try and
beat me up, and he come he was like, oh yeah,
one second. He goes inside his room, he gets a
bow and arrow, and what he comes outside with a
bow and arrow, this big white dude who doesn't give
a crap. And these dudes just sprinting different directions. They're

(03:43):
running bowing arrow, bow and arrow. He was, He's a
he was a maniac. You know, he's a great he's
great family man. Now he's changed for the for the better,
thank god, because if he stayed on that path, he
would have been either dead or in jail. Really, yeah,
he was crazy.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
So that toughing you up.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Though, it tough in me all through wrestling or if
there was like street fights. I always just knew that
they weren't my brother, So I was good. Like I
what he put me through was there was nothing that
they could do to make it worse than that.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
When that was happening, though, Like, were your parents like
did he hide it from your parents or were they
kind of like.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Charlie, stop, yeah, he man, this is a kid that
first grade he walks into He walks into his first
grade class, and you know, the teachers introducing herself, and
her name was Missus Burger. And so Charlie shakes her hand.
My brother's name is Charlie shakes her hand, and she goes, hi,
my name is missus Burger, and he goes hmm. Burger
bites her hand. He just like, you know, his brain

(04:39):
was on a different God, bro, you know, running away
from school. He was. I mean, I seen he like
my parents were. You know, it was a tough. My
parents were great parents, but he was a tough kid
to parent. You know. I seen the torment that he
put them through and trying to That's what kind of
led me trying to go down the right path because
I hated to see my parents so upset and defeated
all the time with what you know, he was kind

(04:59):
of put them through.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
You know. When I had a big brother, you know,
my brother's Joe, he could be tough on me, but
he was too busy, like doing his own thing to
worry about me. We were twelve years apart, though, how
old are you far? Are you guys?

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Three years three and sometimes four years?

Speaker 1 (05:16):
So we were twelve and that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
So he can't kill you that bad?

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Well, when I would get threatened with fights, he never
stopped it. One time I was going to get beat
up and I was going to go home. We live
right across the street, and I thought I was gonna
get saved by him, but instead he told him they
couldn't jump me and made me fight. You know, that
was one of those things that happened a lot where
I grew up at and it backfired on my friend

(05:41):
one time. He got his ass beat so bad, bro, really,
his mom made him keep fighting. It was so bad.
It's like, but at least you could go to your
parents to escape, Charlie.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, like my parents. But my dad
was working a lot and my mom started working as
we got older, so you know, they weren't around as much.
You know, I could go and tell, but he was
gonna beat my ass for telling him so. But yeah,
he did the same thing. I would have to fight
his friends and their friend friends, you know, bigger and stronger,
and they beat my ass. But I had to stand

(06:12):
my ground. And I had this thing I would I
used to sing Denver, the last dinosaur, the last dinosaur,
and I would go with the fights like that, and
I thought it was invincible. Chris the only person didn't
work against. It didn't work against Charlie because I would
start singing it. I act like I'm psycho and I'm
coming at him and then he just like he would

(06:33):
call me out. Who called my bluff? Should have walked
out to that.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Bro, Chris, I would have is laughing at you.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
He knows, he knows.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
He starts singing this ship, he knows all these stories
you start singing that you deserve to get your ass.
Kid that's singing this last is the crazy. That is
the craziest story.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
I guess I wasn't the coolest kid.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Man. He was bad. It was so bad.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
So what it was?

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Did it feel like you had a shield around you
when you say that?

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah? No, I thought it was like what gave me energy?
And like I thought I couldn't get beat if I
was singing that. For some reason, I don't know how
it happened. Yeah, but I don't know how that came about,
but that was my thing. I would just start singing that,
and I just nobody could beat me. Yeah, that is crazy, bro.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
I hope my son never sings that. If my son
I was getting to fight, you started to slapped the ship.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
I was younger though I was younger than even our kids. Okay,
I was probably like this is I feel like I
was doing this probably and seven to eleven.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
What made me stop?

Speaker 2 (07:45):
I don't know. I don't know. Well, I started getting
into sports and stuff. I started getting into wrestling and
stuff like that. And I wasn't just fighting all the
time like that anymore.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
So So, Chris, you had a good wrestling career, right,
can you say most? No? Stop most, but most people
right when they do that when they have success in sports,
A lot of times the parent is pretty present in there.
Like you said, your dad and mom were always there. Yeah,

(08:13):
was your dad hard on you at all? Or was
he kind of like laid back and.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Didn't really zero percent hard on me? Come on, Chris
literally never mentioned, hey, you should get up and do
a run, you should go to this practice. He was,
he was working hard. He was just very supportive. He's
the way I want to be as a dad, to
be honest. That's why I feel that it worked. It
worked for me. He was just super supportive, never never

(08:37):
acted like he knew anything about wrestling, wasn't wasn't putting
his input saying through with my brother with football he
ended up playing in college, and same through with me
with all my sports. But when I got really obsessed
with wrestling, I mean it was all on me. If
I wanted to get the extra practice in, if I
want to go find the best guys around, there was me,
find them rides and whatever I have to do. Really yeah, yeah,
zero zero percent that he ever pushed me at all.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
So my my dad, he wasn't the hardest, but he
always made sure I went to practice and he would
always kind of like make sure I was doing the
right thing. But he was always kind of tough, right.
He never really like hugged me, and like he wouldn't
like kiss me or anything. Did you dad, like show
you affection?

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, he I don't say yeah we yeah, yeah, I'm kissing, hugging,
not not that's not like we're cuddling on the couch like.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
No, like I kiss my son. I kissed my son
on the head all the time, and before every wrestling match,
I'll give him a kiss. Our football game, I kissed
him on the forehead.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
My dad didn't do that though.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, I don't know if he was doing that, but
he was there. He was a cheerleader. He was just
a cheerleader. Yeah, the time, he was just a cheerleader.
That's it.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
The craziest thing is, like I saw my father before
he passed with my kids. I could not believe how
freely the I love you just kind of flow.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
How he was saying I love you.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
So yeah, it was so free for him to say
that to the kids. So my dad when I never really.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, I can relate to that. With my father in law,
my wife's Marivi's dad, he was a Vietnam Vet. He
was a very hard dude. He was very tough on her,
like her and her brother and his kids. But when
we started having kids with the grandkids, oh my god,
he was like a he was like a baby, the nicest,
so nice to them.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
Just I had no idea. I was like, I had
no almost.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Like they could almost talk back a little bit, and
they're not getting killed. They wouldn't even think about talking back.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yeah, not in this in today's where you can't You
can't get the kids like you used to know. That's true, Yeah,
you can't do that.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Like I say, I make sure my kids don't tok back.
I think everything's a joke with me, well, because you're around,
I'm always messing around and get me to smile too.
I could be pissed and they'll just do things to
just get me to smile, and then they think its
a joke. I'm like, I'm serious, but then I start
smiling and they think.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
It's funny because you happy.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, but I'm just trying to like I'm trying to
be a dad and tell them what's up.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, life is happy for you. But Chris, when you
were a kid and you're going through all that, you
broke your collar bone riding a dirt bike. So I
broke my collar bone too. We had a lot of
stories that are heard some money. I was playing football
with the older kids and I got clotheslined.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
I was, do you remember.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
I think I was like nine, and the guy the
guy kind of like clothes line and I went halfway
back and broke my collar bone. It was one of
the most painful things I've ever experienced. But but I
got up out of that park. I walked home, and
I was tough, but when I got to my mom,
I started crying like a baby. My arm was broken.

(11:34):
I couldn't move it. They put me in a sling
got me healthy and I got back together. But you
got punched in the shoulder.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
Brother. I mean, I just want to say you got
punched and grudges at my brother the way I was
shoot as a kid because it made me who I am.
And literally there's no bad blood at all, but the
stories of the stories, the facts of the fact. So yeah,
I was. I was on a dirt bike. I was
on like a regular like a BMX bike, and we
built these jumps where there was this double and my

(12:06):
brother and all his friends, the older kids, they built,
they built it, and I was going to be the
first guy to try it. Why to see if it works,
you know, to see if it's I was a test dummy,
And of course my dumbass is like, okay, you know
I'm doing it. So I do it. I'm trying to
do a backflip ball. I'm trying to do a backflip
over it.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Well, because you're trying to prove yourself to them, you
want to be those guys.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah, So I land on my shoulder break. I break
my collar bone completely and half and I'm like down,
I'm like, oh my god, my shoulder. Whatever they come over,
they line up. You would be crying if your shoulders broken,
blah blah blah. They start punching me in my arm
one at a time, and I am like numb, and
then I have to leave by myself. I know something's wrong.

(12:46):
So I had to walk my bike all the way home,
and I laid on my couch for probably about five
hours until my mom got home. And I'll never forget
the drive to the emergency room. Every like vibration, everything
because the collar.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
Bone just keeps moving.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Oh it was that was off.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
So you're a nine year old kid in the back
of the car. Where the hell's Charlie At this point.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
I don't know. I sa he got in trouble. I mean,
it wasn't like he was doing this and not getting
in trouble. He was getting in trouble, but I don't
know if it was going to change him.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
I honestly can't stand Charlie. Even today, he's fine.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
But like this, dude, I think you met him. You
met him at a tournament.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
I met your brother, you.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
Met my brother. There's a guy from upstate, man, I'm
gonna forget. His name is terrible. There's a guy who
does uh he coaches Empire. I think Katie is it
k D?

Speaker 1 (13:30):
No?

Speaker 2 (13:31):
What he was his last name? So he wrestled that
I was with with Tom Ryan. He has a he's
a club upstate New York called Empire. My nephew goes
there and so they were at Man.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
I met him exactly what dad was with him at
the US Open. I met your nephew with yep, you
twenties and does his.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Coaches and your brother, Yeah, my brother was there.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah. I can view his face now because you guys
look the exact same. Yeah. Yeah, but all that led
to you starting wrestling, right, Yeah, you start wrestling, you said,
you get obsessed with it. You have a pretty you
have a really good high school career, right when the
stage twice, win the counties twice.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
One time one time, one time, you won the state
States to county.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah, so you win the states, want the counties twice.
Why did you end up in junior college? Because a
guy in New York City, in New York that the
state champion is generally a Division one guy.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, So I was getting I was getting looks and
everything from the Division one schools, but I didn't know
about the Division one clearinghouse. About the Division one clearinghouse.
So it's a combination of your SAT scores and your GPA.
And man, I was very bad in school. It was
I was. I was embarrassingly bad. And then once I
started realizing these Division one colleges wanted me, I was like,

(14:45):
all right, I gotta get good.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Start trying to hustle.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
So I got old A's my senior year in school.
So I brought my GP up, GPA up. I needed
to get a nine to ninety young SATs. I took
it five times. I couldn't break nine to eighty. So
basically I was I had to go to junior college.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
And not unfortunate though, because now there is no standardized
testing they've got rid of it.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Could do different.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
No, they've gotten rid of it. You don't need that.
You don't need that anymore. I did the ACT same
reason I was in junior college GPA and the ACT
did not match. They don't have that, no more, doesn't
that kind of doesn't That stuck thinking back to it.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
Like, yeah, but I don't have any regrets, but only because,
like I mean, junior college worked out great for me.
I had a great junior college career, you know, great people.
I got to meet great coaches, people I'm still close
to today. And I was the one that went to
Division one afterwards, so it was it was all good.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
Was there a moment when you were wrestling right? Because
wrestling is hard, especially early, you get beat a lot man,
you don't it doesn't click for many kids the moment
they walk into the wrestlom and they're just good. I
struggled for like a year and a half, but I
don't really quit anything, so I just kept going while
all my friends quit. Was it hard for you in

(15:56):
the beginning, And is there a moment you remember where
like it kind of click for and you go, hey, wrestling,
this is my thing.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
It was my freshman year. I was on JV all
year and there's a senior in my in my on
my team, this kid named Adrian giwah and and he
ended up they ended up deciding to put me into
the conference and like the varsity conference tournament. So the
other starter who's been in front of me the whole year,
Adrian Giwa, was going to be in that tournament as well.

(16:25):
So I ended up going to the finals and I
go against Adrian Giwa and I beat him, and then
I go into the counties. I went. I think I went, oh,
win two. But just because I saw that I had,
you know, some skill, I was able to beat this senior.
That started giving me some confidence to where I started
working over the summer and I started like kind of
falling in love with it. And then that was the
first push where I was like, all right, I gotta

(16:46):
really start working on this. I think I might you know,
I have the chance to be good at this, and
it's fun. And then I did Fargo going into my
it was my freshman year going to my sophomore year. Yeah,
so that summer I did Fargo and becoming a two
time All American I owe American di in greco and freestyle,
and so right away that gave me confidence, like, wow.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
These when did you start wrestling?

Speaker 2 (17:08):
I started. I'd wrestled in second and third grade and
then stopped wrestling because they didn't have it in my
town anymore until seventh grade. So it gave me like
a little base seventh you know, second and third grade
doing like twice a week and then just during the
wrestling season, and then I started again as the seventh grader. Yeah,
but I was playing every sport.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
It probably refreshed, you though, right to get away from it,
because once you go all in on wrestling, you're so
focused on it that it's hard to really do much
of anything else.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
That's why I'm scared with our kids, you know, like
there's so much like when I was the second and
third grader, there wasn't anybody saying, hey, we should be
going to these national tournaments, we should be doing these
extra practices. There was nothing like that.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
I asked you to day for your kid to wrestle
on national duel teams with this, Yeah, I appreciate that.
That's crazy though, Like it's like that's the level into
which they go in wrestling.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
You know, it's crazy. But there's kids that are doing
that way earlier. You know, there were like second third grade,
they're going to Tulsa's and it's they're taking a very
serious very early. And I think there is a in
my opinion, I think there's like a time period of
probably about ten years where you could be truly obsessed
with something to where like you might still be obsessed
after that ten years. I mean, you still might be

(18:16):
the best in the world after ten years. But I
think the level of obsessiveness on that activity is going
to slowly deteriorate, and then other people who have that
passion and that obsession are going to start, you know,
catching up and surpassing you. So I feel like timing
the passion is probably really hard to do. But I
think that's what the greats have, is that the timing

(18:38):
as well, like just happen to work out.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
But most dads can't do that, right, especially when they
live through the kid. They pushed the kid, and they
pushed the kid, and they pushed the kid, and the
kid becomes the best in the world. But by the
time they're fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old, they're thinking, I
don't really want to do this anymore. Then the dad's heartbroken.
But then how do you find the balance? Right? Like,

(19:01):
how do we find the balance as dads who live
the life that we lived, knowing that our kids have
a certain amount of you to live up to, and
also a desire to not only do well, but do
also because I am Chris Widman's son, right and my
name is Chris Widman, right, when I go out on
the wrestling Matt, I need to be able to do that.

(19:24):
How do you do that? How do you find that
balance with your boys while not being overbearing, because there's
already a built in pressure.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
And I really hope they just I really don't push them.
I try not to push them, but you also want
to encourage them they if they have a true passion
for it, I'm gonna be super supportive. But you can't
instill a passion to somebody that just kind of has
to happen on its own. So I think when you're
trying to push that passion to somebody, it's just a

(19:53):
battle that's going to be lost. You know you're gonna
end up losing your relationship with your son. You know
your son's gonna end the phone out of love with
the sport, and it usually goes backwards. But that being said,
like I've also seen the other way. I've seen parents
push their kids like maniacs, yep, and they had it
work out, and it work out where the kid's amazing.
I don't know about the relationship with the parent. Maybe

(20:14):
it's good, maybe it's not, but.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
It doesn't that's where they suffer. That's where those relationships suffer.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
I'm going with the percentage of what I've seen in
my life. I think it's better not to your kid
has to decide if he wants it or not, and
if he really wants it, then you're there for him
and you're gonna give them whatever he needs to get there.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
So John Smith, the greatest American wrestling of all time,
never coached this kid until he got older. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.
Kid end up being a three time All American and
that's enough. But it's like, can you be your father
when you are who you are? Because sure your dad
was very supportive, he was a bit of a cheerleader,

(20:53):
but he also didn't know what you know and he
can't give what you can give. So then how again,
how do you not cheat with not passing one?

Speaker 2 (21:06):
You have so much knowledge that you want to pass
on to your son to cheat, to cut those hard times,
make it a shorter time period where he's going through
those hard times because you're giving him the cheat cod basically.
And I try to do that my kids. If I
start feeling they're rolling their eyes, they're looking the other way,
I'm out And I hope that and it's starting to

(21:26):
happen a little bit, but at some point I hope
that it's full attentiveness and I could help them you know,
get there a little bit quicker, so they don't have to,
you know, go through as much hard times as you know,
we had to go through. But I also, you know,
I didn't become an Olympic champion. I didn't become you know, Olympian.
I didn't become a national champion in wrestling. So I

(21:47):
never really accomplished my goal in wrestling. So I'm not
saying that everything my dad did, you know, is the
way to be. But for me, I like the idea
of trying to be the cheerleader, being a really good wrestler, fight,
and then try to teach your kid. It's almost like
a blessing and a curse. Like you have all this
knowledge that you want to you know, instill into your kids,
and but then how do you make sure you're not,

(22:09):
you know, pushing them too much?

Speaker 1 (22:11):
You know, I think it's almost impossible for the kid
to do what the dad did, especially in wrestling. Like
Nate Carr is so lucky because David Carr is amazing.
It doesn't work out that that much. I asked John that,
I said, what's success? He goes Joe being an All
American was success for me. Not everybody's gonna be Olympic

(22:31):
champ and I was like, he's right, and my kid
ever becomes a state champion one time was placed with it.
I'll be happy because that's you can't have that expectation
of them of what we had. But I think we
also need to push them to make sure that they
at least have the opportunity to learn it. Because we

(22:53):
learn on the job. We can give them some of
the things that we went through to try to guide
us and guide them in their careers. But your career
and takes shit a hofstra. You become an All American,
but again it was still hard right at time. You
took some losses. How have loss how has loss been
a way for you to build? And how have you

(23:15):
taken losses from the college wrestling mat to the mixed
martial arts How have you applied that loss to make
you better going forward?

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Well especially coming I think what comes to my mind
is when I when I got done wrestling, I was
kind of known as like the kid who kind of
could beat anybody, but also could lose to anybody. And
I was kind of a mental midget. I was I
would I would choke. I went to the semifinals twice.
The two times I went to Division one, I made the
semifinals both times. Both times I was winning against the

(23:46):
guy who eventually won the national championship, and then I
got pinned well Chris. So it was, you know, I
just find a way to lose. And I and when
I reflected when I started getting to MA, I had
to try to figure out, like, what the hell's wrong
with me? Why am I this guy? And I realized
that I think there was a lot of these guys
were just working way harder than me and smarter than me.

(24:08):
I was competitive. I love to compete, but I wasn't
doing the extra stuff at all. I liked being like
I was the athletic kid that could beat anybody. You know.
That was that was that was cool for me. But
when I got into MMA, I was like, you know,
I don't want to be that kid anymore. I want
to be that hard working, blue collar kid that just
grinds every day. So I when I got into MMA,

(24:28):
that was the mind shift that I made within myself,
was like, you know, I'm just I'm just gonna outwork everybody.
And then eventually became a habit.

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(26:03):
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That was kind of what you did right, Like, that's
what you did right. And you speak about mixed martial arts,
but you end up training on Long Island with Ray Longo?
Was that just kind of by chance because that's where

(26:26):
you're from. It's like we talked about this before you
and I were It's like, man, you got kids that
go wrestle for you from all different places, and kids
transfer and they move and they do all these things.
When we were growing up, it was like you kind
of just go to your local high school, Yeah, and
then you just go Was that what that was with

(26:46):
the gym with Longo Ceremony? It was like it was
on Long Island you were or had you move back
home after college, and uh, that was the gym that
you were closest to. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
For me, it was just seamless. I guess just luck
being blessed that. The way I even got into MMA
was there was MMA fighters coming from Longos and Matt
Sarah's coming down to Hofstra to learn to be a
better wrestler. So I was helping them with their wrestling,
and I wasn't even thinking about fighting at that point.
And then eventually I was. I was trying to be

(27:16):
an Olympian. I was trying to be an Olympic team,
and after I got injured right before the trials, and
that was kind of the crossroads, like all am I
going to try to take make the world teams I
was making. I was an assistant coach at Hastra, getting
a master's degree and making twelve thousand dollars a year,
and so I'm like, man, this is a It's a
tough way to live, you know. And I was living
with my parents' basement. We were just having our first kid.

(27:37):
My wife is out, she just got her CPA license,
she's working at price Warehouse Cooper, and I'm kind of
the loser, you know, just making twelve thousand dollars a year.
So I saw all these fighters making money. I knew
wrestlers were doing really good with it. I had a
lot of people around me that knew where I came
from and the way I grew up. I knew my brother.
They're like, you would be like the amazing at this,
you should be doing this, and I'm like, eh, maybe

(27:58):
you're right. And when I got it, when I first
walked into Matt Sea's gym, that was when I made
that switch in the mind, like all right, I'm just
gonna try to outwork everybody. And I did three months
of jiu jitsu straight up. I paid whatever it was, like,
two hundred dollars a month, and I paid for a
gee one hundred and sixty nine dollars, and I did

(28:19):
After three months, I did a Grappler's Quest, and I
did my weight class and then the Absolute Division, and
the winner of the Absolute Division would get two thousand dollars.
So I ended up submitting everybody in my weight class
and the Absolute division black belts, you know, the black
belt division, and I want two thousand dollars. I'm like, bro,
I could do this.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
You were three months into your.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
Career months three months. I'm like, I could make I
make more money doing this every if I could do
this once a month, I'm making more money doing this
and I am coaching the hostra. So then I was like,
I got my wife on board. I'm going to start,
you know, going down to Longos and learn how to
stand up. And then six months later I had my
first pro fight. I just went straight into it.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Yeah. I don't know many guys that were more highly
regarded as prospects as you coming into the UFC. But
to live up to that was crazy. But yours was expedited.
You only had nine and oh when you fought Anderson, Bro,
when Anderson was rocking and rolling at that time, he

(29:15):
was by far the best fighter on the planet. It
was scary. He was dangerous. You're nine and oh, you
haven't even been in an octagon ten times and you
get that call. What was that call like? Because I
I know, I see stuff that you've talked about where
you go. I was excited. I was there had to
be a party going, man, this is fast.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
I was on a mission, Bro, I was in it.
At that time. I was so focused. I'm becoming a
world champion. It was everything to me. You know, I
had failed and everything else I did, you know, wrestling
and stuff I never accomplished my goal, and this was
I was doing everything right. I was out working everybody.
I was winning every training session against anybody that put

(29:56):
me against and with jiu jitsu, stand up professor boxers.
I was I had to win every round of everything.
I had to finish people, and I was doing everything right,
and I believed I could be the world champion. And
it was me who made that a fight happen. I mean,
I went out there against Mark Muno's and I put
on still probably the best I've ever felt in a
fight was against that against Mark, and they were trying

(30:18):
to get Mark to fight Anderson Silva because there was
alder uh you know, talk about how Mark had beat
him in sparring or something.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
I don't teammates.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, And so after that fight, I had met with
Lorenzo and Dana and them in Chicago, and I was
just like, you know, I begged them. I'm like, please
give me Innocon. I'm telling you, not only will I
beat him, I'll finish him. And they're like all right,
and they didn't. I didn't hear anything. And then next
thing I know, they called me. I had just got

(30:47):
I just had a shoulder surgery. I just went through
Hurricane Sandy, and uh, they called I just got done
with the rehab and it was going to be eight weeks. Actually,
as soon as I got done with the rehab of
the shoulder injury, it was basically time to start camp.
But I was I was on a mission. Many there
was doubt, you know that I saw off his fights,
you know, I saw all those highlight knockouts. I seen

(31:09):
how it made people look stupid out there, and there
would be moments where those doubts would come to my
mind and the possibility of being embarrassed, you know, and
not accomplishing my goal. But man, I was anxious all
the time because I was constantly thinking about and constantly
running those thoughts out of my mind. You know, I
was fighting those thoughts every second of the day.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah. Do you think that those losses, right, not being
able to ultimately accomplish what you accomplished, prepared you for
those big moments? You carried a chip on your shoulder,
knowing like, man, I want to prove everybody wrong. I
was the kid that blew it right, I was the choker. Yeah,

(31:48):
now I'll have an opportunity on the biggest stage of
my life. It's not only not choke, but I can
shock the world because you were supposed to get beat
and you were supposed to be bad. I was in
the arena that night and people were holding up Brazilian flags.
It was the Fourth of July weekend.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Yeah, they handed Brazilian flags out and American flags out.
There's more Brazilian flags in the arena than American flags.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
On the fourth of July. And you're young at the time,
young in your career and young in age.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
I just went back and we just saw that fight
with my son. The other day with CJ. We were
sitting on the couch and you pulled it up. I
couldn't believe how young I looked.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
You're a baby, dude, was a baby. You were a baby.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
I was only a two to I was only a
two to one under dog.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
But you're Anybody could tell that you were good.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
I knew. I knew what other people with I knew.
I mean, we had got like GSP came out. He
thought I was going to beat him. There were some
big names in the sport that were like, Wiman has
what it takes, you know to beat him, But I
just I didn't care. I had to win that fight.
You know I had to beat him. I had to,
you know, finally accomplish my goal.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
When you knocked him out. That place went crazy when
you knocked him out and he went down and you
had just beaten the guy that was considered the best
in the world. What did you think of immediately? I know,
you're all fired up. You're like showing your hands and like,
I knew I was gonna do this. But bro, when
he went down because he was talking and he was talking,

(33:09):
and you just kept plugging away, like you never let
anything get to you in that moment. Would you ever
get them Did you ever get a thought in there
go fuck this dude, man, I want to take his
head off, like while you're fighting.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
So we had all these professional boxers and kickboxers come
in and we'd have them taunt me and put their
hands down and mess with me. And I thought I
was prepared for that, and I didn't let it bother
me in training, and then when it was actually happening
in there, I kept my composure. I kept my composure.
Then he had done it one more time and this
is one that knockout happened, and it was actually me

(33:42):
losing my composure. I got pissed. I said, he started
doing that like I was winning the fight. You know,
I gave him the first round, second round, I'm landing
more strikes. The only thing he was landing was he
was like kicking the crap out of me. But I was,
you know not, I had my poker face on. And
he did it one more time where he started doing like,
you know, the shimmy and ye shimmy, I mean whatever,

(34:06):
and I was like, are you joking me? So I
that's why it was like a weird combination because I
just wanted to I think at the jab that I
came with a cross, I barely miss him, and I
just hit him. I just wanted to hit him with something,
so I hit him with my backfist and I guess
that's what he thought that was my hook and then
now my hook was coming behind it and just hit him.
And I mean when he went down, it was you know,

(34:29):
it was it was it was just surreal. I lost
my mind. I was pissed, like actually I wasn't. As
soon as I knocked him down and I finished him.
I mean I was ripping my shorts off. I was
doing the Derek Lewis before you.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
Were fighting, you turn into your brother. You were fighting.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
I was like, what now, motherfucker?

Speaker 1 (34:49):
You want to keep doing it?

Speaker 2 (34:50):
Like I was, I was actually losing my mind, kind
of blacked out. I thought I was gonna beat him
by either submission or TKO. I did not guy was
knocking him out. We've seen guys he lets people punch him.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Yeah, and he just his eyes are so good.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
He would come on the cage and literally let dudes
punch him in the face. Sometimes he wouldn't even move
his head. Yeah, it would be nothing. And so for
me to knock him out, that wasn't that you know,
you know, Longo had me believing in my hands, but
that wasn't the recipe for success that we were looking for.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
You knock him out. You guys fight again? Second time.
It looks like he's afraid to go to the octagon.
I don't know, if you watch that, his walkout took
so long because I think he recognized. I mean, there
were a dude that I don't know if I can
be could you feel that like when you when you
were standing back there waiting, did you ever want to like,

(35:45):
first off, why is this taking so long? Like what's happening?
And then when you go back and watch it, you
could see in his face like he didn't think he
could be he didn't think he could beat you. It
was a different he had a different approach to that fight,
and you could see it all over him.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Yeah, I was. I was a man on a mission. Man.
I was so hungry. I was a young, hungry kid
with it was my it was my dream. He had
already accomplished so much like it's hard when you're getting
older and you just win in one title fight after
the other and you have this guy and you know,
it's weird to say, but at the time, I was
a freaking animal. You know, I was truly an animal.

(36:23):
I was in there to completely dominate him. It meant
everything in the world to me. That's a tough that's
a tough octor gone to walk into, you know. And
that second fight, obviously, the light break was awful.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
It did was it? What did it sound loud when
you were in there?

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Honestly, I did not know. I get a lot of
backlash online, but people, I guess, don't watch the full tape.
As soon as he goes down, I think he's hurt.
I think I think I mentally and physically broke him
at that point in my mind, because if you watch
the first round in that fight, I drop him, I
hit him in the temple, he drops, and now I
drop him again on the feet, hard ground to pound

(36:58):
the whole first round, second round, I checked his first
leg kick. First leg kick guy ever checked. And it
was so much easier to fight in the second time
because he had his hands up the whole time. It
was like a traditional kickbox. His hands were down. It
was way more difficult to deal with. You know, you're
dealing with your emotion, you're getting like you're embarrassing you.

(37:19):
But he had so much backlash when he got knocked
out with his hands down that he came to that
second fight doing everything right, you know, and it was
just easier to see everything coming. And so before that
leg broke, I checked his first leg kick. He was
so good at setting those leg kicks up so well
that you wouldn't see him, and I was able to
see one. I checked it. That's not the time he

(37:40):
broke his leg. We move around a little bit more.
Now he throws the leg kick without any setting up.
You know, he doesn't set it up at all, and
you know, I check it, and I just thought he
was mentally and physically broken. I thought it probably hurt
his shin. So I start running around the outgune I win,
and then I heard a scream, you know, from anison,
and I'm like, why's he screaming like that? And that

(38:00):
came over and then I seen his leg all messed up,
and I mean, you, it was very hard for me
to be happy. Really, you could watch me in that
post fight after my little run around. I was my
coach is coming in super happy. I'm like trying to
force a smile a little bit, but I was.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
It was.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
It was devastating. It was terrible. Yeah, you going and
then obviously you know what happens later, but yeah, it
really gave me a good insight on what he was
dealing with, which is awful.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
You go on this run of Brazilian champions that you're
beating leotro v tour and then we get to the
fight with Luke Rockle right, it was very easy. It
was very easy to see that you two were on
a collision course to fight each other. The fight was
going very well early and then he starts to work

(38:51):
his way back into the fight and then you do
that spinning kick. Do you think about that? Like, do
you thing about like what if I did not do
that in that moment? And what prompted you to do
that in that moment when you're fatigued and you can't
really do it at the rate or the speed that

(39:13):
you normally would.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
You know, it's not it's not excuses, It's just I
was I was on my way to lose. I was
on my way to losing at some point, whether it
was Luke or someone else very in your career. Why
even before even Vitoor fight like if if? Because I started,
I started, well, the injuries started really turning up on me.

(39:38):
You know, I started having you know, it's on my
way to get into thirty surgeries, you know where I'm
at now, But they just start piling up. My knees were.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
So all the hard all the I'm going to be
the hardest working guy in the room started to really
become a negative.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Yes, So I had to start changing things. You know,
Now I made money, right, I'm going out to expensive dinners.
I had had a ribby until I was probably you know,
twenty seven years old. You know, I had never went
to an expensive restaurant. In my life. All of a sudden,
I had money. You were doing all these different things.
You know, I have sponsors, So you had that aspect
of it where I was that hungry kid living in

(40:13):
my parents' basement. That was on. My goal was to
provide for my family and become a world champion. So
now I already have that. Or I defended my belt
twice against Anison, beat Anderson, and defended against Anderson, then
Leoto Machiitah, Now I'm going as vtor Bell for it.
I had get I got injured before that fight, and
then they rebook it for a couple, you know, months later,

(40:37):
and they were starting to get a lot. I was
starting to get a lot backlash or being like having
injuries and having to push out of fights and stuff,
and so I decided to do shorter camps. I was like,
you know, instead of doing a ten week camp, I'm
doing six week camp. I just started doing less. I
started doing less work, you know, to take it's less
less chance of getting injured. But then I would still
get injured in the fight. I would still get injured

(40:58):
in training camp, and then I was there was no
time to take care of my body. It was just
I had to keep grinding and pushing through it, and
the injuries started adding up. Going too the Vtur fight.
That was the beginning of my demise because I won
that fight the first round doing a six week training camp,
and I wasn't training. I wasn't training like I used

(41:20):
to do at all.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
Why do you think, why do you think fighters struggles
so much when they get everything that they aspire to get,
the money, the fame, the freedom, the comfortable life. Why
do you think fighters struggled so much when you get
everything that you intended to get and more.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
I had a hard time. So after I beat Answered
the first time, I knew I was gonna have to
rematch him no matter what, like even before the fight,
so I had that as my goal. Lioto macheta fight,
I wasn't getting the credit. You know, people, you know
his leg broke, they thought it was a freak knockout.
In the first fight. I still wasn't getting the credit
as a UFC champion and it was pissing me off.

(42:00):
So I was like, I got to dominate Leo Machidah.
So I was very well prepared for that fight. Then
I got a lot of credit, like people were like, oh,
this dude's he's good. And I accomplished my goal. Yeah,
I became a world champion. I defended a couple, you
know at that time, you know, twice, and I was
you know, now it's just like, all right, I'm just
gonna keep trying to stay undefeated and not lose anymore,

(42:22):
you know, just keep trying to win belts. It wasn't
as much of a like a goal that I was
hungry for like it was in the beginning. Yeah, I wasn't.
I wasn't like as obsessed, you know, to beat the
world champ. Yeah, I you know, I did it. You know,
I won my national championship, I won my goal. I
won you know, all the things I didn't think I

(42:43):
could do a little bit. The chip on my shoulders
started starting to and so then going to Luke rock Hole,
if I I knew he was, I was. I was
back into that old Chris, that old choke artist Chris,
because I wasn't working as hard as everybody anymore, and
so I was doubting myself. And instead of fighting those

(43:03):
doubts out, I was I was like, it doesn't matter
what I think.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
Now.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
It all matters is when against the Afghan So I'm
not fighting those thoughts every day, and I think eventually
it just kind of caught up to me. And uh yeah,
you know, Luke was the better fighter that night. I
thought we both looked like crap. You know, I honestly
think we both fought terrible that night, and uh yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
After that, it was very difficult to regain and reclaim
that championship level. Why why was it so hard to
Because again, that thing that you chased, that you had
coveted and you had gotten to it was gone. Now
you could you not re capture that want for it?

(43:52):
Or were the injuries so bad that you were like, man,
no matter what I do, because you should wreck when
you wreck. Recognize I did a six week camp this time,
I should go back to doing twelve. Did you do that?
And if you didn't, how did you really expect it
to change?

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yeah? I wasn't.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
I was or didn't matter.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
I wasn't thinking like I'm thinking now. I was thinking.
I got in so with the Luke rock Holl fight
in my head, the reason why I lost is because
I did a six week train camp, but in the
first week I broke my foot on Valante's elbow right,
So now I couldn't do the cardio and the footwork
and all that stuff like I like I wanted to.
So I just I blamed it on that. But it

(44:34):
was more than that. It was a lot more than that.
It was so much deeper with all the things we're
talking about, you know, like the just mentally being confident
comes from hard work. You know, I need to really
grind and feel like I'm working harder than everybody else
for me to truly be confident. And I wasn't. I
wasn't doing that anymore. And then on top of that,
the injuries. Man, I just I had a lot of

(44:54):
bad injuries that are a problem.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
Injuries are a problem, but you have injuries and then
you have an injury like what happened at UFC two
sixty one. Twenty seconds into the fight, you throw that kick.
It is literally one of the nastiest things I've ever
seen in my life. Take me to that moment when
you're in the octagon and that happens, and how quickly

(45:22):
you realize, like this is really bad. Seriously, because I've
watched your documentary, right and I've heard you talk about
it a little bit and kind of go through the process,
the recovery. But in that moment, are you thinking, oh
my god, this is what happened to Anderson.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
First thing, that's literally what went through my mind is
well really so, I mean the long story, well I
won't make it that long, but so I never really
did calfkicks before. You know, that wasn't a thing. Right
when we were fighting, and then Anthony Smith came down
to sparrow me. He was getting ready to find the
same card and I can't kicked him in practice, and

(46:02):
he went down. I'm like, bro, that was crazy. One
kick he's going he went down. He said his calf
was happening to be sore. Like, so I go into
that your Ryahule fight. We're circling seventeen seconds in. I'm
just like, I'm gonna kick his calf as hard as
I can see, Yeah, And I kicked as hard as
I could I kick. I remember the sounds and the

(46:22):
sound to me was like, holy shit, that was a
hard kick. Like, there's no way he's not feeling that
right now. And as I put my leg back, I'm
looking him the eyes. I'm like, I know you got
a poker face on right now. I know that hurt,
and then next thing. No, I don't remember really falling,
but I've seen the videos. I remember looking at my
leg and on the floor, and I the first thing

(46:46):
was like confusion, like what the fuck? How was this
my leg? The only time I've ever seen that was
Anderson's leg, right, I was in there for that. How
the hell is this my fucking leg there right now?
And then I remember I remember him being so much pain,
and now I had no adrenaline. It was seventeen seconds
and I wasn't even sweating at so it was like,
we walk outside right now and just kick a pole

(47:07):
as hard as you can, snap your leg and half
your bones go through your cap muscles and out your
skin like that's It was the worst pain I could
ever I can't explain how terrible it was. And I
was just please give me pay medication, please, screaming and yelling.
I was a little bach, you know, and it was.
It was completely awful, and I didn't know. Yeah, I

(47:29):
couldn't believe it. I could not believe that was my leg.
I still can't believe it. How weird, how crazy.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
I couldn't look I literally could not look at it.
If you watched the broadcast. I saw it happen and
I was asking Joe and John like, I was like,
is it bad? And they were like, it's really bad.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
And it also happens to be the only compound fras
because the bone came out. So when I seen that,
because they didn't show that on the UFC replays there
only I think monster energy only they have this as
I saw ale. Yeah, they have an angle where you
could see the bones and the bone like tibia or fibula,
bones flopping coming out and spiking through like knives. It's

(48:12):
pretty nasty and all the blood and everything. The UFC
didn't capture that, but I seen that. And when I
seen that, and then the doctor's like he can't feel
a pulse. He couldn't feel a pulse in my ankle,
and that means like you know, you're gonna you don't
have blood supply down there, so now you know Auto,
they started thinking like am like, am I LI going
to be all right?

Speaker 1 (48:30):
You know?

Speaker 2 (48:30):
I was just losing my mind.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
It was.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
It was a complete nightmare.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
How hard was that for the family in the back
O your wife and your parents like to see that,
Like his sport has done so much positively, but to
see that, how was that when they got you back
through the curtain.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
So they were trying to rush me out because they
were worried about possibly losing my leg, and so I just, uh,
but I wouldn't leave without my wife. So I was screaming,
that's you know, my wife's name, like, I'm not leaving
until my wife gets here. So she they ended up
finding her way down and they got into the ambulance
and yeah, got to the hospital. They put me on

(49:12):
all the pain medication they could, and they couldn't. The
surgeon wasn't coming until the next morning, so now you
have the whole night. So they were just pumping me
full of morphine and it just wasn't enough. And then
they ended up putting me asleep to put the bones
back in so they to clean it up hopefully, you know,
deal with any possible infections, put the bones back in,

(49:35):
and then they wake me up and the pain was
just brutal. I was screaming all night until I remember
Dana came. Dana comes in, which is really nice of them.
And I've never asked Dana for anything. Yeah I'm not.
You know, the guy gets asked for everything. You know
as a champion. I never asked him for anything. I
asked them for some extra money, so I was pretty

(49:56):
I was pretty timid with that too, but I just
was like, Dana, please just make sure I have a
good doctor. You know. I want to be able to
walk again and play with my kids. My biggest thing.
I could cry thing about it. I'm not going to
cry though. What I just wanted to be able to
play with my kids again and be able to walk
and do things like that. And that's kind of where

(50:17):
my mind was at that point on that night. On
that night, and even like weeks and weeks after and
weeks after that was that was really it. I wanted
to just be able to like do that.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Life can change very quickly, yeah, right, and we do
this job that we love so much. And it was
hard to watch that. But was even harder was watching
you go through the recovery of it. And I remember
in the beginning, like we would call you and we
would I would talk to you on FaceTime at times,
and you just sit on this couch, right, You're just

(50:50):
kind of sitting on this couch and life is happening
around you, right, Because I'm pretty sure your kids are
still doing athletics and everybody's doing things, but you can't
really participate in way that you normally do when you
were in the process or in the midst of recovery.
Was it harder mentally or physically, because for me, I

(51:10):
think mentally I'd probably have a harder time dealing with
not being able to go to CJ's practices, not being
able to go watch your daughter in gymnastics. Are you
know it'd be hard.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
It was physically it was the hardest thing I ever
been through, for sure. I mean the pain, the pain
if any time I had to go get from laying
down to having to go to the bathroom was was
one of the hardest things you could ever imagine. The
pain of the blood rushing down to that leg, you
know now, like because the bones came out and through

(51:49):
every and everything, the nerves were all damaged, so like
the nerve pain that I would have and the like
you know, it was it was it was just crazy,
like nobody should have to feel that type of pain.
It was awful. So pain was very bad for a
very long time. And my prayer was just like I
just need to be a bearable type of pain. But

(52:11):
I was. You know, I'm pretty like optimistic, and you
know I was, you know, but it was it was
tough met it was. Yeah, just to answer your question,
it was tough mentally as as well as physically.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
Did you think you were going to come back?

Speaker 2 (52:29):
I wasn't thinking about like, I wasn't thinking about that
for a long time. And then at some point it
started kind of becoming a thing in my head where like,
I need to come back. I need to show that
I could come back from this, not just for me,
but to my kids and everybody else.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
And when you did come back, you said, I'm gonna
throw a leg kick. It'll be the first thing I do. Yeah, well,
then you couldn't get yourself to do it.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Oh yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
And you took a whole bunch of lake kicks.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
Damn Brad, the virus man. I thought he was a
good guy. Calf kicked the crap out of me the
whole He broke my other leg. Really yeah, he actually
fractured my tippy on this side, my hairline fractured, not
fully fractured, but kicking both my legs and you know,
for me my defense if someone kicks me, we kicked
right back you know, you're make him pay for that kick.

(53:16):
And he kicked me the first time, and I was
thinking I was gonna be able to throw it and
I just could not throw it. I threw it one
time in that fight, maybe like second round, and it
was like you could see if you watch it, like
I was trying to do it, but I wasn't throwing
it hard. It was just like, like I did it.
I wanted to say I did it, but I couldn't.
It was it was crazy. I couldn't. I couldn't. My

(53:37):
body want to do it.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
You could tell that there was a hesitancy to do that.
But then the following fighting is Bruno Silva. All you
did was kick. What switched?

Speaker 2 (53:47):
I don't know. I don't know. I just was I
needed to get that monkey off my back, you know,
I needed to be able to kick again. You know,
show I could do it.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
You go into the next fight and you obviously losing.
You walk away. You have this idea that you're going
to box or do something different. The GFL thing comes up,
it doesn't work out. You still haven't gotten any like
of those boxing things that you talked about prior. Is
that still something you want to do because generally you

(54:18):
still work for the UFC. Right, I'm pretty sure you
could have stayed in the UFC. I don't know where
they're gonna cut you are? Did you ask?

Speaker 2 (54:26):
I think there were pretty much. I think they were
pretty much done with me. I think I could have
probably got one more fight if I really wanted to,
I could have pushed for it. But you know, I
was was it forty one? I was forty one? I
think when it was Yeah, it was this year. Geez, Yeah,
it was like forty forty one. I guess it was
my brother's jew and so it was right before that.

(54:50):
Are they are? Think? Am I? Who am I going against?
What am I doing?

Speaker 1 (54:54):
You know? Like?

Speaker 2 (54:55):
Who am I fighting to beat? And for what reason?
You know? It made? It made no sense?

Speaker 1 (55:00):
So are you done? Because you signed up for the GFL? Right,
the game doesn't generally let us choose when we're done.
It says to us, we don't really have a need
for you anymore. Yeah, are you done, Chris? Or like,
do you used to have a desire to? I am?

Speaker 2 (55:16):
I'm done with MMA. My knees just can't bend anymore
like they used to. I can't be in those type
of scrambles jiu jitsu wise, I'll do some jiu jitsu
tournaments and stuff like that, and like boxing match against
you know, a big name history that I have, you know,
somebody I have history with older guys, you know, like myself. Yeah,
I like boxing. I wouldn't mind doing like a pro

(55:37):
boxing match. I'm staying in shape. I'm working out, as
you know, at least five times a week. I told
you every day, but it's more like five times a week,
you know. But yeah, I'm staying healthy and we'll see,
we'll see if something comes.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
Yeah. You know, on this journey, we never do it alone. Right,
from the early parts of your life, your brother, your father,
your mother supporting you constantly. You know, your dad, it
became a mean celebrity because he supports you. Essentially in
that moment, he was being a cheerleader. She's still my kid, right,
I love my boy. There's nothing in the world that

(56:10):
would have changed at but your family, right, your wife,
MARIVI son CJ. Colton was a little different, right, that
was a little tougher, and Cassidy, your daughter. They've been
a huge part of your journey. What what have what
if they meant to you. And how important is to
have that support system from I mean, they've walked Ito,

(56:33):
he's walked into the octagon and everything. That'd be a
special moment like to have those things happen for you.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
Oh man, it's the best thing ever. You try to
make me cry. I know what you're don't This must
be the end of the interview. Get me to cry. Yeah. No,
it means that they mean everything in the world to me.
You know, without having their support, I wouldn't have been
able to do anything. My wife has been the backbone
of the family, but of me, you know, my entire career.

(57:03):
She's she's been there having my bag from through through
some crappy times, you know, tons of ups and downs,
and she's always stood by my side. So she's a
real one, you know. And and my kids, you know,
they're everything to me. We just and we got I
have a new kid now. I adopted this baby girl, Savannah.

(57:24):
She's the most amazing thing ever. Love her to death.
She's been such a blessing. Yeah. So my family's everything.
I mean for me, My legacy is my family. You
know what I could pass down to them When I
think of fighting legacy at the end of the day,
all that disappears, you know, whether it's ten years, twenty years.

(57:45):
You know, I could see I haven't fought since I
was a champion, being relevant. You know, it's slowly it
goes away, and at the end of the day, that
can't be your main motivation because it is going to
go away at some point, you know, and even after
we're gone, you know, how long are people going to
know you? You know, it's probably not as long as
anybody you know wants to think about. You know, how

(58:07):
many presidents do you know?

Speaker 1 (58:09):
You know, you're right, Yeah, you know, it's just and
they're the most important people in the country.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
Yeah, exactly. So I feel like it's more about the
impression and the role model you could be for the
people around you, your family, and how they go through
life and pass that on, you know, moving forward for
themselves as well as.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
Your family taught you about being more resilient, and have
they taught you more about fighting just in life in general,
because now you're fighting with a team. It's still a team, right,
but there's as much as you might love very longer
than those guys, right, it's a different love when you
fight for that team and when you watch your boys

(58:47):
compete or your daughter compete, like the nerves, the fear,
Like how much have they taught you in that regard, right,
going from the athlete to now the support system.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
Yeah, it's what I learned from them, especially at their ages,
is it's all about the love of the game, you know,
just going out there and having fun. Really, as a fighter,
that's what you want to feel like when you're in
the octagon, you know, you want to feel like you're
just having fun. And yeah, so I learned a lot

(59:21):
from them. And I also, you know, want to practice
what I preach, you know, I try to, you know,
give them some of my the things. That's that's helped
me mentally over the years.

Speaker 1 (59:33):
So watching your kids compete, right, and they'll ce j
Russell's football, what does Colton do?

Speaker 2 (59:39):
Baseball too? And and wrestling and football?

Speaker 1 (59:43):
All your kids do. Something you told me. You told
me that in order for you to be as good
as you were, you had to be the hardest person
in the group. You also told me that you don't
want to be the one that's overbearing and pushing, but
you recognize that they have to be the hardest worker
in the room. Are they the hardest workers in the room.

(01:00:05):
And if they aren't, when do you step in and go, hey,
remember my story.

Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
Yeah, it's getting there. CJ's thirteen now, so he's gonna
get He's getting to the point here. Over the next
couple he's starting to matter where it's going to start mattering.
I will say he's a very hard worker when he's
in that room. He is a very hard worker. I'm
proud of him. He works really hard. Yeah, Colton is

(01:00:31):
a little knuckle at. He's so talented, he is. He'll
grind it out, but he's he needs to learn. He's
young and he's ten. And Cassie's little, she's a savage.
She works hard too, she's a really hard worker.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
So you're proud.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
Yeah, I'm proud. I'm proud of all my kids. They're
they're amazing in old different ways.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
So it seems like the perfect family core right. You
have the mom, you have the dad, you have the
three kids, two boys and a daughter. It's ideal. But
then you do adopt Savannah. Yeah, we went to that decision.
I remember at the Apex, you guys were gonna have
the baby, and you're all fired up. You're like, I
got to do the show, and I gotta get going, Yeah,
because I have to go get my I have to

(01:01:12):
go meet my daughter. Yeah, we went to that decision.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
Honestly, my wife I was good. I was I'm just
go with the flow type of guy. Obviously, I always
wanted kids, but we were young when we had at first,
and then you know, I was good with one. Then
I was good with two. I was good with three,
and I was definitely I thought we were good. We had,
you know, two boys and a girl. Kids were kids,
are doing great. But my wife, she we had some

(01:01:36):
she had complications, some serious complications in like twenty eighteen
and nineteen when we were trying to have another kid,
and we ended up, you know kind of we ended
up moving to South Carolina. They think slowed down, we
got busy, and I thought we were good. But my
wife she wanted one more and she had she really
felt that she had a calling, you know, to adopt.

(01:01:59):
And I I was like, man, that's a lot. But
you know, who's had a kid that they ever ever,
they've ever regretted. So I couldn't say I couldn't say no.
And I wasn't sure how it was what it was
going to be like, but man, I can't believe how
much I love this kid. When my kids were really young,
you know, I was so obsessed with becoming a world champion.
I was I was not around mentally like I am

(01:02:22):
right now with this baby. I'm obsessed with this little girl.
She's so cute. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
Has it changed life daily? Every day? Has it just
made your life better?

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
Every single she she when I come home and she's
immediately she's smiling at me. She's got the best smile.
She brands up my day every moment of the day.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
She needed to get through to about five or six
years old. Way, they just idolized, Oh, it's the best,
it's the best time. And then they go like the
rest of these guys were like, I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
Gonna lay in my room and there on their phone.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
Yeah. It's uh, it's crazy, man, It's very crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
So fast it goes, I gotta really do.

Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
It goes so fast, Chris. I always try to ask
people this question when they're done sitting with me. I
know you say that your children are your legacy, But
to your daughter, your new baby, your three children that
are older, what do you want them to remember about you?

(01:03:21):
Right from the adversity from the ups, the downs, the
hardships from seeing their dad stuck on a couch, like
what do you want them to take and applying to
their lives and how do you want the general fan
that watch Chris Widman in his heyday become the world
champion to remember about.

Speaker 2 (01:03:40):
You for my kids. I mean, there's a lot of
lot of things that you want to pass on to
your kids. But with this, I would say, you know,
adversaries coming for you for you all, and just don't
give up, stay positive and uh and push through, you know,

(01:04:01):
because that's why injuries are like almost a blessing in disguise,
because it's it's just draw as powerless to everybody's life.
Everybody has adversities that they have to go through constantly.
And when life is going good, at some point, something's
gonna happen where you know, you get a curve ball
in some adversity heads and you gotta you know, take
it as a take it as like a learning experience

(01:04:26):
and find like the silver linings in all the and
all the tough times.

Speaker 1 (01:04:31):
You like living in South Carolina, Carolina.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
Chris, I like it, man, It's really nice. It's very
chill people are very nice. No honking food's not bad,
and uh, you know, it's a great place to raise
a family. My family's living a great life.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
Yeah. And from all that, right Hallstra High School wrestling,
knocking out Anderson Silva, coming to world champion, coming back
from that adversity, when you look back with the thing
that you're most proud of, is it your your shining moment,
you winning that NC double a title, that championship by
knocking on Anderson or is it you getting up off

(01:05:08):
the couch and showing that even in your darkest moment,
you're able to overcome and put yourself back in a
position that you are today.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
I think I'd be lying if it wasn't if I
didn't say, uh, you know, winning the world championship, you know,
that was just that was the goal that I set
for myself and I accomplished it. So and lucky for
me it happened to be Andison Sila, who was, you know,
one of the greatest of all time and the greatest
of all time at that time, you know, so it
was a good opportunity.

Speaker 1 (01:05:39):
You've had a good career, my friend, and you did
a good job. And when you're doing a great job
on television also, so it's it's awesome guys. Let's thanks
Chris Wyman for joining us. This guy is truly inspirational,
like I said in the beginning, and he's a person
that has given us all to the sport and he
continues to do this now behind a podcast desk, and

(01:06:02):
I think that he has a massive future in this
field as he did in the field where he became
a world champion. So Chris, thank you for joining me man.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
I appreciate it, guys, Chris Widman, I'm Daniel Cormier. Thanks
for tuning in to the Daniel Cormier Show. We'll see
you on the next one.