Former UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman is widely considered by many to be one of the greatest 185 pound fighters to ever step foot inside an octagon, and his career will be celebrated this July as he will be inducted into the Modern Wing of the UFC Hall of Fame.
FROM LONG ISLAND TO THE HoF 🇺🇸
Former middleweight champion @ChrisWeidman joins the UFC Hall of Fame in the Modern Wing!! pic.twitter.com/BDupgbwnrY
— UFC (@ufc) May 10, 2026
Weidman was announced as the latest inductee during the UFC 328 broadcast, where a video package aired in the arena showing some of Weidman’s greatest moments, messages from his family, friends, and training partners, before getting a standing ovation from the live crowd. Jon Anik on commentary noted that many of his friends who were there didn’t know about the induction and that it was a wonderful surprise.
“The All-American” will join both Dominic Cruz and Demetrious Johnson as this year’s inductees into the Modern Wing. Alex Pereira will receive the Forrest Griffin Community Award for his efforts to help underprivileged children in his hometown of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the UFC Women’s Strawweight Championship fight between Zhang Weili and Joanna Jedrzejczyk from UFC 248 will be inducted into the Fight Wing. On top of those inductions, it was quietly announced away from the broadcast that Thomas Gerbasi, the former editing director of UFC.com and a well respected historian, will go into the Contributors Wing as a posthumous inductee as he passed away in September 2025 at the age of 57. The ceremony will take place on July 9 in Las Vegas, Nevada as part of International Fight Week.
The Career Of An All-American
A two-time NCAA Division One All-American, Weidman had a total of 20 fights in the UFC spanning 13 years. After amassing an MMA record of 9-0, his tenth win would be his most famous as he was the man to end Anderson Silva’s seven-year reign as UFC Middleweight Champion in what is one of the biggest upsets in MMA history. Their rematch would be as memorable for more gruesome reasons as Silva would break his leg in the second round. From there, Weidman would defend the belt against Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort before losing it to Luke Rockhold in December 2015.
Following the loss to Rockhold, Weidman would be one of the public faces of the UFC when MMA was finally legalized in the state of New York (where Weidman is from), and would get to fight on the first Madison Square Garden card in November 2016. However, he would go on to lose on that night against Yoel Romero. In a cruel moment that mirrored his second fight with Silva, Weidman would break his own leg in 2021 against Uriah Hall and would miss two years of action, and upon his return, he would fight just three more times before retiring from the UFC in January 2025. With that said, Weidman is getting back to his wrestling roots as he was recently announced to be facing Colby Covington at Real American Freestyle’s RAF 09 event on May 30.