Chris Weidman Returns from Badly Broken Leg, Meets Brad Tavares at UFC 292

Chris
Weidman will make his first Octagon appearance in more than two
years when he faces Brad
Tavares at UFC
292.

Newsday was first to report the middleweight booking. It will
be Weidman’s first fight since he
suffered a gruesomely broken leg 17 seconds into his clash with
Uriah
Hall at UFC 261 on April 24, 2021. Weidman, who broke his right
fibula and tibia on a checked low kick, had to undergo multiple
surgeries to recover from the injury.

UFC 292 takes place on Aug. 19 at TD Garden in Boston and is
expected to be headlined by a bantamweight title tilt between
Aljamain
Sterling and Sean
O’Malley. In the co-main event, Weili Zhang
will defend her strawweight crown against Amanda
Lemos.

A former UFC middleweight champion, the 38-year-old Weidman is just
2-6 within the Las Vegas-based promotion since December 2015 —
which dates back to when he relinquished the belt to Luke
Rockhold at UFC 194. Weidman’s most recent victory came at UFC
Fight Night 174, when he outpointed Omari
Akhmedov in August 2020.

Tavares, meanwhile, is coming off back-to-back losses against
Bruno
Silva and Dricus Du
Plessis in UFC competition. The 35-year-old Hawaiian is 14-8
since joining the promotion in 2011.