Chris Weidman loses comeback bout by decision at UFC 292

It was 847 days ago when Chris Weidman broke his right leg during a fight and was carried out of the UFC’s octagon.

There have been multiple surgeries since. Multiple concerns and doubts, as well.

“The lowest point was a few weeks probably after the fight, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to really walk again properly,” Weidman said during training camp. “And I was scared I wasn’t going to be able to play with my kids the way I always love to do.”

Those questions answered themselves as the days went by for the former UFC middleweight champion from Baldwin. The next question was when he would fight again. That was answered Saturday night when Weidman faced Brad Tavares at UFC 292 in Boston.

But the comeback story didn’t include the ending Weidman was trying to write. Weidman lost a unanimous decision to Tavares, with all three judges scoring it 30-27.

The 39-year-old Weidman had said the first thing he wanted to do in the fight was throw a right leg kick as hard as he possibly could to show others, and perhaps himself, that the leg was fine. That never materialized as Weidman kicked only with his left leg through all three rounds.

“I was a little more nervous to throw a leg kick than I thought I was going to be, to be honest,” Weidman told Newsday after the night. “When I was saying I was going to throw leg kicks right away and I had no fear of throwing a leg kick, I wasn’t busting chops. I wasn’t trying to play the game. I really, honestly thought I’d wind up and crush the leg again. When I was in there, I guess there was a little bit of hesitancy. And I guess just ring rust, not being in there for a long time.”

As the fight went on, Weidman’s surgically repaired right leg seemed to hold up fine. His left leg, however, took the brunt of the damage from Tavares.

With his left leg compromised by Tavares’ kicks, Weidman was forced to fight most of the last two rounds as a southpaw. The naturally righthanded Weidman (15-7) was able to land some solid strikes on Tavares (20-9), but not enough to overcome the Hawaiian’s kicks.

Whenever Weidman tried to switch back to his orthodox stance, with his injured left leg in front, Tavares quickly fired off kicks. On several occasions, Weidman noticeably hobbled and winced in pain.

“He made the adjustment to southpaw, and that kind of threw things off for myself,” Tavares said. “At one point in the fight, I kicked him in the leg, and he’s like ‘C’mon, do it again, c’mon.’ I was like dang, don’t write this dude off.”

Tavares was able to stop all eight of Weidman’s takedown attempts in the fight, forcing Weidman to strike more and keep his compromised left leg exposed through the last two rounds.

Weidman’s best round came in the second when he landed 22 of his 39 total strikes. During one flurry of strikes that favored the former champion, Weidman tried to will himself through the round by yelling out loud for extra motivation.

As the fighters left the octagon after the bout, Weidman struggled to walk down the stairs from the cage to the floor. Tavares noticed and helped Weidman walk to be greeted by his wife and their three children just outside the octagon.

“I’m going to ice these wounds, talk to the team,” Weidman said. “I needed this fight to get some of this rust off. And yeah, I’m going to come back.”

Mark La Monica is a deputy sports editor at Newsday. He also covers mixed martial arts.