Chris Weidman will drop back down to middleweight for his next fight with Omari Akhmedov at an upcoming UFC event on August 8th in Las Vegas.
The former middleweight champion has had a torrid time in the past five years, having lost five of his six fights during that period.
Losses against the likes of Luke Rockhold, Yoel Romero, Gegard Mousasi and Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza – all by way of strikes – had resulted in Weidman making an ill-fated switch to light-heavyweight last time out, which ended with a first round KO loss to Dominick Reyes.
Now he returns to the division he once ruled to fight Akhmedov, who doesn’t have the star power of many of the other opponents Weidman has faced during his long UFC run, but is currently undefeated in his last six Octagon outings.
Along the way Akhmedov has defeated the likes of Tim Boetsch, Zak Cummings and most recently Ian Heinisch, so he’ll see this fight as a chance to thrust himself into the spotlight with a win over a big name in Weidman.
Weidman vs. Akhmedov isn’t believed to be the headliner for the show, which will take place at the UFC’s own APEX facility in Las Vegas, but may well take the co-main event spot.
