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Chris Weidman Blames Bruno Silva as Eye Pokes Lead to TKO Getting Overturned for an Unanimous Decision

Published 03/31/2024, 12:18 AM EDT

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Chris Weidman is a UFC veteran who has faced off against many giants and slayed them too. In his prime days, Weidman took down the iconic Anderson Silva twice. He even managed to secure a win over Vitor Belfort. Right now, he’s just come up victorious against Bruno Silva at UFC Atlantic City.

Unfortunately for Weidman’s fans, this victory was a bit controversial, to say the least. Weidman at 39, went toe-to-toe with Silva, who is a much younger and energetic fighter himself. However, the fight ended unexpectedly for the Brazilian who wasn’t happy with it at all.

Bruno Silva should have looked more carefully against Chris Weidman

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Chris Weidman went up against Bruno Silva for three rounds and in the final round of the fight, things took an odd turn. Weidman wanted to knock Silva out but as he attempted to strike him in the face, he ended up landing an eye poke.

And quickly, just as Silva processed the first one, he accidentally hit him with yet another one in his other eye. Silva was not happy with it when the fight was stopped. Weidman would go on to secure a unanimous decision victory over him and would advise him to not go down to the mat even after suffering an eye poke.

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“Let’s address the elephant in the room with the eye pokes,” he said in the post-fight interview. I got poked in the eye too, but this is all my advice to Bruno. Much respect to him. It looked like I touched his eyeball when he was coming in. You can’t drop to the ground like that.”

“If your eye gets poked you got to stand, get the ref. If the ref sees it then, you can’t just drop. He did that like three times and it caught up to him, you know what I mean.” The advice is practical but it also comes from the perspective of someone who benefitted from the move. Silva was visibly physically upset even as the decision win went to his opponent. It’s interesting given that ‘The All American’ was considering retirement before the fight.

Was Weidman planning retirement?

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Chris Weidman was famously considering getting retired. He is 39 years old, which is usually around the time many fighters end up retiring. In fact, many retire even before they hit 39.

Weidman’s win has come after two losses which also adds to it all. However, right before the fight, it appeared as if something had propelled Chris Weidman to keep going and not give it in just yet. He gave multiple interviews where he told the media that he still had “more to offer”. 

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Now, with his fresh new victory, perhaps he’s proven just that. But it hasn’t come without its own controversy. How do you feel about the veteran’s win? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by:

Prit Chauhan

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Prit Chauhan is a UFC writer at EssentiallySports. His portfolio shows him as the go-to event coverage writer at ES and his work on UFC 297 is proof of the same. As an experienced writer and a longtime MMA fan, Prit’s strong suit lies in telling the relatively unknown and more personal stories of fights and fighters.
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Edited by:

Joyita Das