Chris Weidman warns Luke Rockhold ahead of UFC 199 to 'keep that belt warm, I’m going to take it back'

Exclusive: Weidman talks to James Edwards in which he responds to the Independent's interview with champion Rockhold

Chris Weidman (JAMES EDWARDS)

At UFC London middleweight champion Luke Rockhold told the Independent that Chris Weidman, the man he will face in a re-match at UFC 199, "has nothing for me" and that he was "going down again either by knockout or TKO."

Now, the Independent has spoken to Weidman who has offered his response.

Weidman was in Las Vegas last week for UFC 196 cornering his training partner and friend Gian Villante and at the media day last Wednesday, Rockhold's comments were put to him. Needless to say, Weidman was not impressed.

“He’s probably the one guy I didn’t want to lose to in the division because he’s cocky as hell. Now I gave him a reason to be even cockier!

"He’s talking trash, he’s confident. The good thing is I get a second chance to shut him up and deflate him a little bit – just give him a dose of reality.

"He was better than me that night – congratulations Luke. But this next fight is going to look like a completely different fight.”

Weidman then went on to suggest why he believes the rematch will be a much different fight to the one we saw at UFC 194 last December.

“Well, for example, my last camp was six weeks. I broke my foot the first week of camp I had a lot of injuries in basically all of my other fights so I was not going to be pulling out.

"I’m already training now – I wouldn’t be training at this point. This has allowed me to grow and just work way harder and way more often. So my camp will be twelve weeks, I’m already training once or twice a day now and my weight is low. I’m way healthier and when I go in there, it’s going to be different.”

As opposed to Rockhold, Weidman chose not to make a direct prediction on how he was going to defeat his opponent at UFC 199, merely stating that he is confident of beating Rockhold wherever the fight takes place.

“I feel like I could knock him out on the feet, I feel like he didn’t really like standing with me. I could get the takedown and work that from there.

"Takedown, TKO, submission – I don’t really know. I’m just going to react in there, let my instincts take over, let hard work pay off and just take it to him.”

It is clear that Weidman is supremely motivated for his second match with Rockhold and is confident that he will walk out of the arena that night as a two-time UFC middleweight champion. His concluding words in this interview served as a direct message to Rockhold.

“Luke congratulations on the last fight – you got the belt. But just keep it warm for me, I’m going to take it back.”