Hes a phenomenal 185 pounds. Hes powerful and he is absolutely tenacious. When this guy is in that octagon hes hard to deal with. And the scary thing is, he has incredible appeal a lot of people look at the weight issues. Think because hes softer than some guys that hes not supremely conditioned. Theyre wrong. His fight against magney showed that, hes excellent in round four and five. I love he scrambles and scrambles and scrambles. Doesnt accept takedowns. This will be the test. [applause] inside the nassau Veterans Memorial coliseum, inside the building, in which the new York Islanders games are held, former ufc middleweight champion Chris Weidman, making the walk. There will be no more fitting headliner tonight. Chris weidman said im washed up with flashes of greatness. I plan to show the greatness on this one. He said im on. He said i used to have swag but my wife stole it. I cant argue with that, sometimes they do that to us. Focussed a lot on not rushing his position. He feels like he can definitely take that one down instead of rushing for submissions, i want to control this position. This is going to be a war. Mentally prepared for that. Doesnt feel like the same fight where hes forced to fight moving backwards. Look for early pressure from Chris Weidman. Ray longo, in his corner, said the physicality will be strong. He said 5 foopt the versus 62. This 100 the test. The one thing you dont know about weidman, never faced somebody this small with the quickness. Hes a smaller man. Gastelum has the quickness. Can weidman take him down and control him with hisside size. That will be the test early. You have to find it out very early. Other interesting backdrops. Chris weidman has to take the appropriate angles as he wants to pressure gastelum. Gastelum is very quick. Closes distance so well, as he finds ways to land his big left hand. Big part of this fight is pace. That was the theme throughout the training catch for weidman, he felt he started way too fast. He executed five takedowns in round one, just too much the he has to be smart, he has to be methodical. This is a fiveround fight. Gastelum isnt easy to put away. I feel that Chris Weidman can have the advantage. Thats going to be the test for gastelum. Main event coming up in 30 seconds. Its not easy to brew a beer this easy to drink. Bud light is tasted by brewmasters every step of the process. Its a tough job, but for you and your friends, its worth it. We dont just brew beer. We brew beer for friends. What are all these different topped loaded meals . Its an american favorite on top of an american favorite, alice. Its like abe lincoln on top of george washington. Yonder. Get your favorites on top of your favorites. Only at applebees. With that, we have arrived at this main event. Number 5 versus number 8 in the Middleweight Division, Chris Weidman, 33. Kelvin gastelum, just 25. We outline this, 62 versus 59. Weidman has a 6 1 2 inning advantage. For the official introductions, here is bruce. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the main event. Of the evening. Sponsored by the new york athletic commission. Three judges scoring this contest are jeff muller, and urso. When the action begins our referee in charge of the octagon big john mccarthy. And now for those in attendance and ufc fans watching around the world, live from nycb live, home of the nassau veteran Memorial Coliseum on long island, new york. [applause] its time Middleweight Division of the ufc, introducing first, fighting out of the blue corner, a wrestler and a boxer, professional record 14 wins, 2 losses, won nocontest, stands 59 tall, weighing in at 185 1 2 pounds, fighting out of yuma, arizona, by way of huntington beach, california, the ultimate fighter, and the number 8 ranked middleweight contender in the world, Kelvin Gastelum. And now introducing his opponent, fighting out of the red corner, professional record 13 wins, 3 losses, he stands 62 tall, weighing in at 186 pounds, fighting out of baldwin, new york, presenting the former ufc middleweight champion and the number 5 ranked middleweight contender in the world, the allamerican Chris Weidman. [applause] protect yourself at all times. Obey my commands at all times. Stop, i want you to stop. I want you to fight hard, fight clean, good luck to both of you. A lot of Mutual Respect between the two fighters. Chris weidman and Kelvin Gastelum. They put that friendship aside for 25 minutes or fewer tonight. Major stakes in the ufc Middleweight Division. Here on fox. And here is tonights fight clock. Dont miss atomic blonde in theaters friday july 28. Kelvin gastelum, the southpaw in the blue trunks. Chris weidman, out of the orthodox stance, in white. Right off the bat, setting his rhythm with his jab, right hook. Best combination. Youll see a lot of it. Left high kick, he throws well, too. Owning the center of the octagon, gastelum, not allowing weidman to get the defense. Back him up, cheap him back the offense all night, limited space. If and when weidman choolgss to shoot he has an excellent snatch single. Grabs that lead electric and pulls it right out from under you. When you talk to the weidman catch they still believe that they point the number one middleweight in the world. They feel like weidman is primed to prove just that tonight. He is the betting underdog against Kelvin Gastelum. Most significant strike. Hes fighting long, owns a 7inch reach advantage, hes maximizing that. As much as he can keep gastelum on the outside the better. Kelvin looking for that right hook. Weidman keeps touching the lead hand. You cant time it. Hes beating him to the hook. Weidman beating the lead leg of gastelum, its causing issues. Nice takedown, beautiful takedown for weidman. Creating the scramble. What gastelum does well, creates scrambles. See if weidman can control it from the top. Hand control from the referees position, weidman will be the most vulnerable. And he cannot get greedy here. Weidman talks about holding his position if he gets greedy, ground and pound, thats what happens. We saw gastelum get up, from this position against penny. One of the heaviest guys ive ever gram manied with grappled with. And that kennedy win a huge source of confidence for gastelum, looking across the octagon of a man of that size and depth. Good move for weidman. Maintaining position for weidman. Now you see him holding. Trained a lot with john donaher, one of the best grappling minds in martial arts. Hes being patient, Holding Position to pace himself accordingly. And not have to take the guy down three and four times. Into the corner, longo. Come on. Get the backup. He has the kamara, going switch it. Keep on his elbow. Take your time. If you go for it, you rip it. That is beautiful cornering, that subtle aspect, keep your chest over his elbow. Thats not solely to just the mission, that keeps him on top and not lose it. Right now we have weidman going for it. Man thats exactly right. Thats been known to rip a kamara, weidman over a minute to go round one. Great defense. That was deep. Got out. Incredible. Certainly Strong Enough for it. Absolutely. This right here, come the out here and keeps fighting as well as he is. Trying to argue hes not comfortable. He convinced me in the last two fights, those are no slouches. He looked phenomenal. He has to play a long game. We saw it, where he lost the first three rounds. Came back strong on four and five. Closely con tested fight. His ability to thrive in those championship rounds, something weidman has on his mind right now. Gastelum not wasting any energy. Hes calm, cool, collected, hanging out. He knows this is five rounds, he has no rush. Oh gastelum. Right hook, that is the best one, weidman is hurt bad. It might finish it here. [horn] there is the horn what a crazy end of the first round. Big moment for gastelum, we will stay here and fire it into that red corner. Wow. I want you to breathe. We good . Stay long. Go to left. Keep the hands up. I want those front kicks going. Speed kills, whoo. And it was massive tempo change. Gastelum standing in front of him, waving his hands for a while. And out of nowhere, exploded, look how fast he covers the distance. Look at the power he brings to this weight class. [speaking spanish] weidman appeared to recover quickly, so much so, he was able to break his fall. Had he not been able to do that perhaps gastelum would have been able to finish this fight. Man, is he sneaky quick with those hands. With that right hook, gets that angle. Watch him go for that right hook under needs the counter. His left hand. Gastelum smells blood, i tell you, this kid, very aggressive. I think gastelum had his tempo, the way hes looking, just that takedown. And be patient on his feet. He can get it. Lulled him to sleep, playing funny, playing funny, then, bam, explode. Weidman 2 for 2 on the takedown attempt thus far. And later tonight, dont miss a complete recap of the action on long island on the post show, tonight, after the main event on fs2. Watch it live on foxsportsgo. Right hand landed by weidman. Realistically, one of the problems for weidman, hes backing straight up. Thats allowing gastelum to land the punches. Thax that away. Got to circle and not back straight up. When calvin decides to move forward. Important exchange for weidman. The takedown, would be huge for him right now. Nicely done. When youre that much longer than your opponent, trips like that, ankle pick there for you. Look how hard gastelum is to hold down. The right move, on the hand like he should be. This will allow him to be able to bring that elbow in between him and weidman. That hand control is key. Gastelum, jujitsu purple belt against tweidman. Long arms, very underrated. Here on long island, they all tell you how good his chokes are from rear naked when you have your back, and the crown head lock. Fourth takedown secure for widman. Again, now, Kelvin Gastelum back here. Weidman, United States brazilian jujitsu champion in 2009. Gastelum doesnt stop standing up. This is when it gets tiring for weidman. Gastelum saying okay, keep standing up. You can take me down again, ill keep standing up. Gastelum leaning against the fence, let weidman waste his Energy Taking him down. Look at gastelums face, resting it against the fence for a moment. Hes that confident. Youre right, there is a cost to this kind of game for Chris Weidman. Can he maintain it. This is where chris, now that gastelum has accepted the takedown, now chris can get a breather. Five takedowns for Chris Weidman, ties his personal best in the ufc. We are just eight minutes into this one. Closed guard for gastelum, eating elbows now. Maybe a little bit too comfortable on his back. What can he do to get up. He has the wrist control, open up the guard, push on the hips, create space. The more he faces weidman to have to take him down, the better off round flee, four and five are going to be. That was his mindset coming in. I get better as the fight goes on. This kid is going to say, you make them save. I thought wrestlers had it repeatedly, every time they took it back down. You feel like weidman might be turning his head away, gastelum keeps getting up again. Hes very bright. Nice job pulling on the head and landing elbows. Staying busy enough, john isnt talking about standing him up. Right. And hes regaining all of his energy he used in the takedowns. Big control time here. Wideman, less an minute to go. Gastelum willing to give this round up, clearly, to an extent knowing i have three rounds to go. He knows how they scored round one, looked like it was going weidmans way then he got dropped. Gastelum, just something else. Hes grown so much, since the beginning of his career here. Hes moving in this position. Hes in this fight completely. And its fun to watch. Watch these guys in thing on ta gone. In the octagon. The pressure by chris. Grappling with some of the best. Even teed up for gastelum. Strong answer for weidman in round two. Right back with round three. At autozone, we test batteries, starters, and alternators for free. I got a bad battery. Or alternator. Im not really sure. Hey well, luckily we test all that. For free. Do you need an extra helper . This ones free. Right here. Lets get you what you need. Get in the zone. Autozone. Back inside the nassau coliseum, ready to go with round three. Cordero told gastelum after round two, that he feels like hes two rounds down. Might not be case . We love that message, why tell your fighter he won round one. You want him more aggressive, let him know that he lost two rounds. Look at how gastelum is coming out. His plan was to take it easy the first two. Coach got to him. Yeah. Beautiful jab, to split that weidman guard. Weidman, finger in the eye. Oh, thats beautiful. Oh and the takedown. Weidman. Nice movement by gastelum to stem the tide there. Set up, as he took the single and came back with the right hand. Beautiful stuff from weidman. And now weidman motioning gastelum on. A nice job keeping that right hand high. The janice there. The jab is there. Look for that. Beautiful right hand. By weidman. Yes. Man. Wow. That takedown, he got romero with that takedown a couple of times. Not easy to escape that sipping many. Chris weidman, excellent job by gastelum. Just over three minutes in round three. The kick landing for weidman. 11 of 16, gastelum not really as many as weve seen out of him. Obviously the takedown, the reason why. Another easy one for weidman. Going to take the back again. This is a position he has had success with. See if he can pull him away from the fence like he did last time. Thats where he controls gastelum. Open mat is key for weidman to maintain control. If you let gastelum near the fence, he can wear chris out. While resting, leaning against the fence. Get weidman to the center, use that free open mat space. This partisan crowd waiting to explode for Chris Weidman. The takedown, thats his number 7, i believe, unofficially for weidman. Who better than the previous high. Thats the exact same transitional takedown we saw him take. Behind the offense. Switching to the double as he tries to tear you off the fence. Switch to the double. Now he comes back with the kamara. Pulls him away from the fence. Look at this, weidman knows it, hes trying to keep this kid away from the fence. Beautiful, beautiful. Gastelum trying to change hands here. Nice job by gastelum to prevent that. Youre doing beautiful. Take your time. You can get it. Nice, nice. You can do that strangle, if you feel it. Weidman working on the head. He has done it. Pressing up. Getting tighter and tighter. Super tight. Gastelum hanging in there tough as he can. Chris weidman, the allamerican is back wow. Chris weidman has done it. [cheers and applause] his father is here. Weidman calling for his wife. An outpouring of emotion. Chris weidmans mom, hes calling her over. Well, this is the man who knocked out anderson silva, became the middleweight champion. Its going to be a hard moment for weidman to talk. Absolutely incredible. And there is the weidman family. Our move of the fight is sponsored by metro pcs. Covering 99 of people in the u. S. With a network thats more reliable than ever. He was so smart. Just looked like he was falling in love with his strike, went back to his wrestling. Get gastelum away from the fence. Gastelum bellies down. In the transition, he starts to roll out, you could see chris start to set up the head and arm choke here. Now, watch his feet. Hes on his knees. Once he gets up on the right toes, he keeps his left leg toward the hips to keep gastelum from trying to regain half guard. Gets up on the toes of the feet and gets tighter and tighter and tighter. We talked about his underrated submission game. This kid is sick. This is an outstanding performance by weidman. And beautiful, beautiful matchup. The way that he got that head and arm, gastelum knew it was coming but thats how good weidman is to keep it in there. Gastelum did everything he could to stop it, weidman had it too deep. What a moment for Chris Weidman. You saw his father, charlie, a moment ago. The celebration is on. The official decision next. Agent broughton, shes our best intelligence expert. [ grunting ] we have a mission for you. Shall we begin . [ grunting ] reach out and touch faith [ screaming ] reach out touch reach out touch faith atomic blonde. Ready for action rated r. But did you check ebay . No. No . [laughter] [crying] get deals on whats totally new and totally you. Fill your cart with color. Ebay. All standing as you might expect inside the nassau Veterans Memorial coliseum. One final time tonight, brus halls the official decision. Ladies and gentlemen, referee mccarthy called a stop to the contest at 3 45 of round number three. Declaring the winner by submission due to arm triangle choke, the allamerican Chris Weidman. [cheers and applause] all right, long island, im here with the winner, Chris Weidman. [cheers and applause] chris, theres a lot of people in the crowd arc lot of people at home watching who are down, going thru adversity right now. How important was it for to you come out here and show them what its like to come back and that they can come back. First, thank you, god. Guys, you want to do something, believe in yourself. Everybody elses pins, screw it. Long island, whats up, baby [cheers and applause] im back. My wife, my family, i couldnt do anything without them. My coaches, my wonder boys. Im so blessed. Lastly, that british bum whos crying in his house right now, im back, baby im back. Whats up stop hiding from the real men. Lets go, baby. Im the champ and Everybody Knows it. Chris at the end of round one, it looked like you were hurt badly. How quickly did you recover and what adjustments did you make to get the submission win tonight . A lot of credit to kelvin, you cant stand in front of him, you have to cut angles, got me to stand in front of him for a second, it worked. Thats the first time ive been dropped. It was interesting. I didnt go out or anything, but thats what it feels like. Came right back to it. The whole plan with his camp, be confident, in my skills and the finish will come. Thats what happened. [cheers and applause] how much did winning this fight mean to you, to do it here in long island, of a your last three fight