Chris Weidman appears to have learned some valuable lessons after losing his UFC middleweight title to Luke Rockhold.
In the nearly four months since Rockhold knocked Weidman out in the fourth round of their UFC 194 co-main event, Weidman said he has become more open to new training ideas, methods and partners.
Speaking to Jon Anik and Kenny Florian on The Anik and Florian Podcast (h/t David St. Martin of MMA Fighting), Weidman said the defeat—the first of his pro MMA career—matured him as a person and fighter:
My 'if it's not broken, don't fix it' type attitude might have held me back and made me complacent. Now that I lost, it just makes me feel more free to change and do different things to make myself a better fighter. Before I was like, 'it's working doing what I'm doing, so why travel to New York City to train with this guy or go to New Jersey to go with that guy? I'm good with what I'm doing.' Now I'm making those moves and doing whatever I can to make sure I'm handling my business.
I'm just really trying to take myself out of my comfort zone. ... Now I'm switching it up, going with different people. Just putting myself in an environment of 'un-comfortability' to help me grow. I'm already seeing success with that.
The 31-year-old Weidman (13-1) did not go into specifics on what he was changing or the new partners he was working with, but in any case he appears confident that the changes are working. Weidman rejected a tuneup fight in favor of going for an immediate rematch with Rockhold (15-2), which is now booked for UFC 199 in June.
Weidman also emphasized the difficulty he had in training and the fight itself because of two broken bones in his foot.
"When you get hurt it's hard to judge when it's the right time to pull out of a fight," said Weidman. "I knew this was such a big fight that I wasn't going to back out of it."
Weidman originally won the title by knocking out Anderson Silva in 2013. He defended the belt in a rematch with Silva—the fight in which Silva infamously suffered a gruesome leg fracture while throwing a low kick—then defeated Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort en route to a title reign of more than two years.
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