Chris Weidman picks up his first win in nearly four years, defeats Bruno Silva at UFC Atlantic City
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, March 30, 2024, for UFC Atlantic City, going down live from Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Headlining the event is a title eliminator bout in the flyweight division between no. 2 ranked Erin Blanchfield (12-1) and no. 3 ranked Manon Fiorot (11-1).
Co-headlining the event is a welterweight encounter between no. 11 ranked Vicente Luque (22-9-1) and Joaquin Buckley (17-6).
Our feature fight of the evening came at 185 lbs between former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman (16-7) and Brazilian finisher Bruno Silva (23-11).
Weidman, following a 13-0 run to begin his career, had gone 2-7 over his last nine since 2015.
Silva on the other hand, following a 17-1 run from 2012 to 2021, had since gone 1-4 over his last five coming in.
Continue reading to see how our middleweight feature fight went down:
Official Result: Chris Weidman def. Bruno Silva via technical decision (unanimous)
Weidman landed a lot of good snap kicks to the body early, and partially landed a head kick in the opening minute of the bout. He let go on some punches before tying up with Silva, taking his back for a short time. Weidman controlled Silva along the fence throughout the remainder of the first.
Silva caught a kick thrown by Weidman and countered with a good punch in the second, dropping Weidman momentarily. Silva charged in with combinations on the feet, but Weidman did a good job of evading the strikes coming his way and at times countered with some of his own. However, as the round went on Silva began to tag him up quite a lot.
Weidman’s chin held up though and he started to take the round over as it came to a close, landing a heavy right hand amongst other punches and kicks until the bell sounded.
Weidman landed an eye poke in the second, and he’d land a second eye poke early in the third and final round, where we were all worried it would be over right then and there. After taking some time Silva was able to continue, where he was seemingly dropped with a check left hook by Weidman as he was coming in.
However, Weidman landed another poke to they eye just before landing the hook, which is really what dropped Silva, and Weidman followed up with some ground strikes for the third round stoppage.
CHRIS WEIDMAN KNOCKS OUT BRUNO SILVA IN THE THIRD!! #UFCAtlanticCitypic.twitter.com/1baDjOHOnW
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) March 31, 2024
It was originally scored a TKO victory for Weidman, though after the post-fight interview was over the commission had more time to view the finish, which led them to head to the scorecards. Weidman was up 20-18 going into the third. It’s unclear on whether the judges scored the two minutes and 18 seconds of the third for Weidman or Silva.
Chris Weidman picks up his first win in nearly four years tonight at UFC Atlantic City.
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