Weidman snaps skid in front of friends and family in UFC on Fox 25 headliner
Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman couldn’t have scripted his homecoming fight any better Saturday night.
Weidman snapped a three-fight losing streak by submitting Kelvin Gastelum at 3:46 of the third round in the main event of UFC on Fox 25 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, minutes from his home on Long Island.
“If you want to do something, you can do it,” Weidman said as family members embraced and smiled in the cage around him after he got back in the column. “… Keep doubting me, people. I dare you.”
Weidman controlled the first round with takedowns, but Gastelum kept getting back to his feet. There was a brief scare for the former champion late in the first round when Gastelum dropped him only to run out of time before he could finish the fight.
Weidman regained control in the second round with more takedowns and then dragged Gastelum to the mat again in the third before locking in an arm-triangle choke.
“The whole plan throughout my camp was to stay relaxed and be confident in my skills,” he said. “The finish will come.”
When it did, Weidman felt emboldened to issue a challenge to middleweight champion Michael Bisping.
“I’m back, baby,” Weidman said. “I’m back. Stop hiding. I’m the champ and everybody knows it.”
The night didn’t go as well for the two other New York fighters competing on the main card of the UFC’s first event on Long Island.
Even a partisan crowd couldn’t sway the judges for Dennis Bermudez and Gian Villante, who both suffered split-decision losses.
Bermudez struggled to create enough space to take advantage of his theoretical striking edge against Darren Elkins, who applied relentless pressure over the entire 15 minutes and got the nod.
Villante, a friend and training partner of Weidman, also failed to adequately impress the judges as he dropped a split decision to light heavyweight Patrick Cummins.
Cummins appeared to be in trouble early, staggering to his corner after the first round bloody and searching for answers.
He found them. Cummins rallied to win the final two rounds on two of three scorecards by consistently finding a home for his left jab. He went 1-for-11 on takedowns.
He was unavailable for comment after the fight because he was immediately transported to the hospital.
Bantamweight Jimmie Rivera improved to 5-0 in the UFC and won for the 20th straight time overall with a unanimous-decision victory over Thomas Almeida.
Rivera dropped Almeida twice in the first round and kept him at bay the rest of the fight with leg kicks and well-timed counters to win the first fight on the main card.
He hopes the victory earned him a major opportunity in the division.
“I want to give it up to Almeida,” Rivera said. “He’s a very tough opponent and he came in here and stood with me. I gave him my bombs and he stuck it out.
”I’m 5-0 right now, so if (champion) Cody (Garbrandt) is still hurt, I’ll fight TJ (Dillashaw) for the interim belt and if (Dominick) Cruz is done sitting on the bench then let’s fight in November (at Madison Square Garden).”
On the preliminary card, Eryk Anders, Alex Oliveira and Junior Albini earned knockout victories and bantamweight Marlon Vera submitted Brian Kelleher with an armbar midway through the first round.
Welterweight Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos was awarded a split decision over Lyman Good and heavyweight Chase Sherman won all three rounds of a heavyweight bout over Damian Grabowski. Featherweight Shane Burgos won a one-sided decision over Godofredo Pepey.
Jeremy Kennedy and Chris Wade also picked up unanimous-decision victories.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @adamhilllvrj on Twitter.