In a surprising turn of events, one of the prelim fights for this month's UFC 309 was cancelled once the card had already got underway.
Jon Anik announced on the broadcast that Eryk Anders had withdrawn from his fight with Chris Weidman due to an illness that was later revealed to be food poisoning.
In a recent interview on The Ariel Helwani Show, Weidman recapped the series of unfortunate events, detailing how he received the call that Anders was out as his coaches were on their way to his room before they left for Madison Square Garden:
"Yeah I was completely devastated. You know, I felt great for this training camp and it was a 12-week camp and the weight cut was definitely a tough weight cut. Got through that part and then you're waiting all day long anticipating the fight and the pressure of that and then all of a sudden, they get that phone call right before you walk and you're ready to tear that band-aid off and walk into the Octagon and you know, be able to put on a show and it just gets taken away from you. I couldn't believe it. Part of me was like is this a joke? That's never happened to me before so it's a new one after all these years."
Losing a fight on such short notice was disappointing enough, especially with how many family and friends had made the trip over to support him, but this news was even more tough for Weidman to take.
Despite the UFC's attempts to find him another opponent throughout the day, it wasn't to be and that meant that the former middleweight champion would miss out on the chance to fight in New York for what might be the last time.
A big source of motivation for him heading into this match-up was his two losses that he has suffered at the world's most famous arena but correcting course wasn't meant to be.
"I had two fights in Madison Square Garden and we know how those went so it was kind of like the third times the charm. I was ready for some retribution and redemption and it got taken away from me."
The same fight has since been rescheduled for UFC 310 on December 7 in Las Vegas with Weidman stating that the UFC gave him full control over where and when he would look to fight.
"I chose this one because I'm healthy right now and I could have chose one later on and had more time to recover from the camp and everything like that but you know, then there's a chance of getting injured, then I'll have regret. Right now I feel great and I just kind of tacked my camp on a little bit longer with a weight cut in there and now we're doing a catchweight."
Watch the full interview below:
