Old friends: one of my favorite things is seeing old friends again. Chris Weidman was one of the most talented MMA athletes I ever worked with. He came to train with me when his first jiu jitsu coach (and my great mentor) Matt Serra suggested he come in to work with me in the blue basement. Chris had the goal of beating the man many believed at that time was the MMA goat – Anderson Silva. It seemed an impossible goal. Mr Silva was literally toying with his opponents at this time. Mr Weidman was an exceptional student who learned moves with ease and moved like a welterweight despite being a big middleweight. The first time we worked together was the Tom Lawler fight which Mr Weidman won in seconds with a devastating Darce strangle. Then he defeated Demian Maia and Mark Munoz, endured a terrible shoulder injury and surgery and then began one of the most impressive fight camps I ever saw to get ready for the challenge of his life against the great Anderson Silva. He went on the shock the world by convincingly winning two fights against Mr Silva. After that we drifted apart and worked together only once more – for his thrilling match against Kelvin Gastulem, where once again Chris Weidman showed his grappling skill – winning with a beautiful kata gatame strangle. He came into austin today to work on his grappling! It was like old times! He did a fine job studying some of the recent changes in submission grappling and showed that brilliance of his that I saw so many times years ago in the basement!
