The UFC 309 lineup has officially begun, with the first bout being signed between former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman (16-7) and former LFA middleweight champion Eryk Anders (16-8).
UFC 309 is to go down on November 16, 2024, live from Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Since his days as middleweight champion Weidman has had one of the bigger falls from grace in recent memory, falling from a perfect 13-0 four-time world champion to going 3-7 over his latest 10 appearances.
Most people remember Weidman for his epic upset KO of Anderson Silva back in 2013, dethroning the longtime champion with the most title defenses in UFC history (11), a record of which was later tied by Demetrious Johnson.
Prior to that Weidman had also defeated the likes of longtime contenders Demian Maia (UD) and Mark Munoz (KO) and following his claim of the title he’d go on to defend it against the likes of Anderson Silva in their rematch (TKO), as well as a pair of former UFC light-heavyweight champions in Lyoto Machida (UD) and Vitor Belfort (TKO).
Weidman then lost his title to former Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold (TKO), also losing his next two-straight to Yoel Romero (KO) and former multi-division, multi-organization world champion Gegard Mousasi (TKO).
After rebounding with an impressive win over Kelvin Gastelum (arm-triangle choke) Weidman would lose to another Strikeforce champion, this one Jacare Souza (KO), before going up to 205 lbs where he lost to then undefeated future title challenger Dominick Reyes (KO).
Weidman next picked up a win over Omari Akhmedov (UD), becoming the only man to ever out-wrestle the Russian inside the octagon, before suffering another pair of defeats to Uriah Hall (TKO) in their rematch, and then Brad Tavares (UD), both fights of which he suffered leg fractures in.
‘The All-American’ however returned to the octagon earlier this year at UFC Atlantic City, picking up a victory over Bruno Silva (UD) in March.
Eryk Anders has somewhat of a similar story to Weidman’s, opening up his career at 10-0 through his first 10 professional bouts before losing for the first time in what was his first UFC main event opposing Lyoto Machida (SD).
Anders would go 1-3 over his next four, and he himself has been up and down with wins and losses since, going 2-1 over his latest three outings with a win over Kyle Daukaus (TKO), a loss to Marc-Andre Barriault (UD), and a win over Jamie Pickett (UD), also earlier this year in March.
His best win however probably came before his UFC tenure even started, when he won the LFA middleweight title via five round unanimous decision against current no. 7 ranked middleweight contender Brendan Allen.
Who wins this middleweight encounter going down this fall at UFC 309?
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