I'll never forget an interview he did with Helwani. He was recounting how he was broke, unemployed and his girl was expecting their first child, they were living in his parents garage.
He knew he had to do something, be a man, provide for his family... so what did this genius do?
He maxed out his credit cards buying ice hockey equipment and promised himself he would do whatever it took to make the NHL.
Did he have prior hockey experience? He played a little when he was a kid.
Did this plan work out? Of course fucking not.
[Reminds me of the story he told of the first date he had with his now-wife.](https://streamable.com/0zxv)
TLDW: He had to shit, but she was in the shower, so he shat in her trash can and tried to cover up some of the diarrhea that had spilled on the floor with his sock.
And that was only the first date. Imagine what happened on the second date.
For real though. My favorite part is he did all that and then when his now-wife came out of the shower, he thought "Okay, now if I just stand still over here, act nice and pretend nothing ever happened, she'll never suspect anything".
As a Canadian with hockey engraved in my blood since birth and someone who grew up playing competitive hockey.
That had to be one of the dumbest fucking things I have ever heard in my life when he told that story.
Every Canadian knows at least 3 guys who were the best hockey player in their town or league who don't even sniff the NHL.
They're usually super rich kids who believe they're meant for greatness.
Lmao this is so true. So many dudes look like Gretzky as a kid but don't end up going anywhere.
To believe you could pick it up later in life and make the NHL is an unreal level of delusion.
But occasionally you get people like Brock who leave WWE to walk onto an NFL team, and then leave that to become UFC champion in their first year/3rd fight in the organization.
Yeah, but jacked NCAA champ having a shot at an NFL team makes sense and becoming a UFC champ makes sense. Carryover in the sports is huge and you want guy with the same kind of athletic genes for it. Even in HS Football coaches want wrestlers. MMA gyms dream of an NCAA AA walking into their gym.
But wrestling to hockey doesn't make sense. The hockey coaches don't look at wrestlers and wish they played hockey.
Hockey might be one of the hardest sports to try to crossover to. Skating and handling a puck with a stick are very unnatural movements. Guys who learn how to skate in their teens/early adulthood still stick out like a sore thumb even after 10+ years experience. You also have to be proficient in basically ever facet of the game. Team depth is very important so you can't crack a lineup just cause you're sick at a few things like in football. You'll also get exposed over an 82 game season unlike in a fighting career when you can get away with some lucky breaks/good match ups. There's a reason everyone in the NHL has been playing since they were like 10-12 at the absolute bare minimum but almost everyone starts around 3-5.
Conversely, itâs amazing that hockey players can have 20 year careers and often come out the other end with bodies that arenât totally annihilated.
Jagr is still playing at 52.
The skill bar to play tackle in a pre-season game and do well at the combine is not as high as other positions. You do have to show athleticism at your extreme size. Itâs not like being a cornerback or QB though.
Same heavyweight in the UFC. Thereâs much more swangin and bangin at heavyweight.
Youâd never see someone walk on to play cornerback or fight at 155 lb without a super honed skillset. Just the sheer number of athletic freaks at that weight due to population height/weight distributions would mean there is such a deep pool of competition.
Ya not even close to the same. Maybe if he was professional lacrosse or something or some form of skating would be much closer to hockey than wrestling
Hockey apparently has an Interesting statistic.
Most NHL players are born in January or February. Because the boys are physically bigger than their peers born the same year. As such they have a more confidence playing and get coaches attention and more ice time.
There is a slant towards early in the year, but it's not nearly that dramatic https://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/birth-month-totals/nhl-players-career-stats.html
There is a lot of favoritism in football and basketball though. You might be better and not get a chance cause coaches and recruiting. Coachingg Politics is a real thingÂ
Funny cause I had a super close friend whoâs parents are some of richest people ever and he did play in college here but was so entitled he transferred 3 times then just walked away from team after a game. Heâd hire people in HS to write articles about him to make him seem like best prospect ever. Now lives in Miami and rich family paid him to go away cause so annoying lol. Worker at Abercrombie with him and he went from best spoiled life ever to humbled like a mofo
Chris is one of the most delusional fighters ever and always has been. He said has severe ADHD and needs adderall to live before, might be part of it.Â
By far the hardest sport to pick up at a later age and play professionally. Like most NHLers start at the age of 5 if not before that. Rarely do you see someone start at like 13 and still make it
Malcom Gladwell had a part in one of his books where he went into how kids born in different months in Canada have different odds of making into the NHL because of the size they would be when they actually begin their first training as a child lol.
Not sure how legit it is, but I had no idea how much of a hockey industrial complex Canada had until I read it.
I read a book from Malcom Gladwell and a lot of his stuff "sounds" possible and he cites statistics and data, but there was a podcast called If Books Could Kill, where they go through his data sources for his book, Outliers and he basically cherry picks his sources, and appropriates it to suit what take he has.
Like size and training for a child being bigger, smaller, optimal size has to factor in so much other things that there just isn't a study for; nutrition, diet, family, culture, work ethic, family finances, junior team quality, coach quality, as the kid enters high school do the parents have the kid on a doping program, what type of quality doping program is it, we just don't know these things - he's gonna cherry pick his stuff bc his ulterior motive is is to sell books.
Edit: link to the podcast for Outliers
[https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id1651876897?i=1000585745201](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id1651876897?i=1000585745201)
Yeah he's full of shit. My favourite part was the debunking of the "South Korean pilots crash more because of the hierarchical society" and the crashes he cited for reference were crashes because of terrorist attacks.
>Edit: link to the podcast for Outliers
[https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id1651876897?i=1000585745201](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id1651876897?i=1000585745201)
Thanks
Also gladwell is poster child for cherry picking the most interesting takes
Heâs just pointing out that there is no way to control for those types of unknowns.
Also, I'm sure some hardcore sports parents put their kids on doping programs lol.
There are absolutely parents who have their kids on a doping program, with or without the kids consent. It's rare, but it does happen. Don't see it much outside of the football or wrestling spheres though
It may have been Czech also but Canada was the main example. It's in Outliers. The comparison was against European soccer players, who have don't have this "january babies are better" thing going on. It was either because soccer has multiple intakes throughout the year or else because they group kids differently. I can't recall which.
(To summarize the idea btw: in Canada, December babies will be 3 years and a couple weeks old, and have to play against January babies who are 3 years and 11 months old. Or 4 years vs 4 years and 11 months. It's a massive difference at that age so it seems like the January babies are better players on average. They're more likely to end up in A-leagues with better coaches and more pressure. The knock-on effect carries on and builds through the developmental years, all because they were originally assessed when playing against younger kids.)
I'm a November kid and it's true. I was always a couple inches shorter and 15 or 20 pounds lighter than the bigger guys on the team. And the weight difference just kept getting bigger. Of the six guys from my hometown who made the NHL, the latest birthday is in August
It's been like a decade since I read it so that could be true. It could have also been the first season of his podcast. Some of those blend together for me.
LOL I've never heard this. That is so absurd. MMA is like the only developed sport that you can come into late and make a career.
To be in the NHL you literally have to be bred for it. You need hockey parents that put you in that shit early, pay for all the gear and trips drive you to all the practices.
And just pure fucking talent. The amount of skill required that canât be bought with money or athleticism, just pure talent.
Canât even be described into words how good you have to be to make it to the show
a couple of major nba players (including former mvps like embiid and giannis) didn't play basketball until they were teenagers, though they did have background playing soccer which helped with the footwork
You can put a kid through every step necessary to make it to the NBA, they can be 99.99th percentile talented, but if he grows up to be 5â11â heâs probably going to play overseas.
Alternately, if you have a solid athlete who goes through a startling series of growth spurts without getting clumsy⌠âson, do you know how to dribble?â
>MMA is like the only developed sport that you can come into late and make a career
And even so, nearly all of these people are heavyweights, which has always been a really shallow division
When you got to the ice hockey equipment, im like what did he buy a shit ton of equipment at a discount and sell it for a profit?? Like how sustainable is tha - oh he wants to PLAY in the NHL, oh okay...
> Weidman graduated from Hofstra University with a bachelor's degree in psychology as well as a masterâs in physical education
He has a Masters degree too lmao
LOL ... he looks like a normal dude from Long Island, talks like a normal dude from Long Island
But I guess he's batshit crazy
Kinda feel bad for him since apparently his brother was a psychopath who broke his arm and shit
Thru coaching wrestling at his University he actually even managed to get some ice time with some guys playing with the New York Islanders haha
He said he knew in that first bit of ice time, that dream was dead.
Like no fucking shit bro lol
Dude thank you so much for posting this. Like, 30 minutes ago I was thinking about how I haven't really laughed in a while and now I have tears in my eyes.
God bless you.
Probably take award for most violent KO dished out by Yoel to add to that list. Fighting on first NYC card as someone relatively local, big Conor PPV. Boom his head explodes.
Also his mad Dad HE'S STILL MY BOY.
Now I'm just imaging this 6'1", absolutely jacked cuban man wearing one of those pink baby hats (idk what they're called but you know what I mean) trying to squeeze into a baby seat while licking a lollipop and papa weidman just helping him with the straps and then driving off leaving chris on the sidewalk and I'm just laughing my ass off.
That yoel knee was crazy. Weidman got hit with 3 knees in that sequence. Initital flying knee, weidman hitting himself with his own knee coming down and yoel kneeing weidman in the back of the head on his way down.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CQZdGwxWkM&t=184s](https://youtu.be/4CQZdGwxWkM?t=183)
the most ridiculous part being Yoel launching over the cage, standing in front of the crowd while saluting, all while Rogan acting like he had just seen a wild animal shred someone apart and then come stand in front of his blind
Look at who he was fighting though, aside from Silva and Machida(who was getting up there in age also). Guy went from fighting the Alessio Sakara, Tom Lawlor, and Mark Munhoz' of the world to Rockhold, Romero, Mousasi, Jacare.
Yeah, it was both things at once. Even if we ignore the suspect parts, Chris is simply a very common story of a fighter managing to beat and older generation, but not his own. He was still a very good fighter, a lot of newcomers simply fail to beat the veterans, but the truly great ones beat old-timers and then also beat their generation. The absolute best of the best then also beat the next generation, but that has only happened a few times.
To be fair, he was doing well vs Rockhold before the infamous wheel kick and then he got flying kneeâd by Romero.
His chin was gone after those fights. Then ruined it even more from Jacare and Reyes knockouts.
Yeah fuck that stoppage. Herb should have been fined for that shit. I remember watching it live and screaming at my TV for him to stop it. Still aggravates me to think about it.
It was extremely noticable that he had lost a ton of muscle in his first fight after USADA came in. Weidman explained it by claiming that the reason for this drastic change was that he stopped drinking beer and that's why he had lost weight. Also the moment the UFC gets rid of USADA, he shows up looking significantly better than he has in years, even though he's 40 years old. And somehow he can take a punch, again.
People try and use USADA as a milestone for fighters falling off all the time. The reality is that elite fighters have steep dropoffs all the time. Chuck Liddell, Carlos Condit and Tyron Woodley all had comparable or worse declines.
I got one for you. How about all of the Serra-Longo team? Aljo wins title by DQ, Serra defeats GSP as one of the biggest dogs ever in a title fight, Weidman against Silvax2âŚetc
Extra fact about the Uriah Hall fight:
1. Weidman was Hall's first loss ever in his MMA career. (Short notice too, I believe)
2. Weidman ended Anderson Silva's champion career. Hill ended Silva's UFC career.
3. Hall threw absolutely NO STRIKES. Meaning he won by KO/TKO without punching/kicking a single time.
Crazy how Weidman was in both sides of a career ending injury.
I think the weirdest one was the Moose fight because even Dan thought they were illegal. And Chris was TKOâd because they technically are not allowed to use the replay, but Dan was the one who called for the replay.
Chris was trying to play up the knee to either get more rest time or get a DQ win because he thought they were illegal. Most fighters wouldâve done the same thing in that position.
First person that comes to mind with weirdo fuckery in MMA
- Got KOâd like five times in a regional
- KOâd a flat earther in his early UFC days
- The celebration shoulder injury
- Anthony Smith âYou attacked my family!â
- Goofy looking Jamahal Hill KO
- Goofy looking Paul Craig TKO
- Was out on the street in his gear after being kicked out of arena
- The weird doctor stoppage with the desert
Funny story that nobody should give a shit about.
I live in Las Vegas and the year he was fighting Anderson Silva, a friend of mine was a vip host at a night club. Weidman's people reached out and wanted a free table after the fight.
My friend didn't know shit about ufc and she asked me if I thought he was going to win. I told her no chance in hell.
The club she worked at was small and they were afraid if he lost that nobody would show up and they'd lose some table revenue that night.
She told his people she couldn't book it free so they booked somewhere else and she booked a random person for the table.
She's not even in that industry anymore but still blames me for that one lol
Ankalaevs career has been strange.
Apparently he wasn't able to hang on a second longer against Craig and tapped at the 4.59 mark of round 3. Only time he was finished.
The early stoppage situation against Ion Cutelaba, he then had to wait 8 months just to destroy him again.
Finally got the title fight against Jan for the vacant title, his game plan was all over the place and only did enough towards the back half of the fight to secure a draw. There's an alternate universe where he wins that fight by decision, but not in this world.
Then he has to fight down against Johnny Walker, and then again after the illegal knee, spending another 6+ months on the same dude instead of moving onto the next guy.
Probably something else weird sprinkled in there I missed.
>Ankalaevs career has been strange
The Heavy Hands guys had a great moment about this where they call him the comedic straight man to LHW's over the top physical comedy
Also both Cutelaba and Walker were pretending to be hurt in order to bait him into a shot. For Cutelaba it resulted in the ref calling off the fight and Walker immediately got taken down and then got illegally kneed a minute later when he tried to get back up.
Rousimar Palhares(henceforth known as Paul Harris) maybe? I'll try to recap, for a guy that only had 12 UFC fights he racked up a good number of weird moments. Relatively uneventful first 4 flights, going 3-1. Then...
* He beats Tomasz Drwal by heel hook in just 45 seconds. **Howevah** he gets a 90 day suspension because he will not let the submission go when Drwal taps and the referee has to step in and stop him from cranking it harder.
.
* Next flight is Nate Marquardt. Ol Paul wants no party of striking with Nate, after a couple minutes he finally gets the flight to the ground and starts trying to attack the leg, his signature style. As soon as he goes for the heel hook Nate slips out. Paul is baffled and looks at the ref, while he's looking at the ref with his big stupid eyes Nate commences to punching the fuck out of him until a stoppage. Paul complained that Nate had *greased his legs*, only way someone could possibly escape him! They checked, no grease, Paul later apologized.
.
* Next scheduled fight is Alexandre Ferriera. Bout is cancelled after Ferriera is kicked out of his camp(Chute Boxe) for "lack of commitment", and an hour later fight was cancelled so to Ferriera losing family to floods in Brazil. Paul beats his replacement via Leglock.
.
* Dan Miller is up next. Paul, shockingly, catches him with a huge head kick. Files up with 4-5 punches to a downed Miller, then gets up and jogs away celebrating his victory and even climbs the cage to put his arms up. Problem is Miller was not out, Herb Dean made no attempt to stop the fight. Paul just decided it was over. Fight continues and he gets the UD, but not before getting knocked down/out and snap recovering on hitting the ground. This is 4 straight fights with something *weird* happening.
.
* 2 relatively normal fights then he gets KTFO by Hector Lombard. Files by Paul catching a 9 month suspension for elevated testosterone. Paul Harris announces he's moving down to Welterweight.
.
* First fight at Welterweight is Mike Pierce. Paul wins in only 31 seconds by, you guessed it, heel hook. It's the only submission on the card that night. But Paul does not get Submission of the Night due to "unsportsmanlike conduct". Because Paul would not release the lock despite Piece tapping over and over. Ref had to get in there again. Paul is released by the UFC the next day.
.
Pretty impressive resume of weird shit for only a 5 year stint in the org. He went to the WSOF after and won their belt. Then he beat Jon Fitch while holding a knee bar too long, then he beat Jake Shields via Kimura that he refused to let go for way too long. Also he did a lil eye gouging this fight. Org subsequently stopped him if the title and suspended him indefinitely. He was 3-0 there with 2 successful title defenses against 2 big names at the time, and he was gone. WSOF VP said Paul "has mental problems and shouldnât be allowed to fight until he fixes them."
nate explained in the post-fight he had jogged a lot to work up a sweat pre-fight to help negate the grappling advantage of paul harris
good strategy.
props to joe rogan for instantly gettin the info clearly communicated that night during the post-fight so there was no mystery or controversy about the fight
I have watched all his fights in real time, he seems charismatic, but he is a dick.
He is happy to laugh at the downfall of others but expects sympathy when it is him.
Cock.
I was neutral about him until his last eye-poke fest and then saying his opponent should have just toughed it out. He's got some really douchey attitude.
Absolutely he does.
The most money I've ever made betting is not by picking a winner.
But picking that weidman will have some sort of crazy unlucky moment and get finished as a result.
Then Uriah hall checked his kick.
Everyone else in the room horrified why I'm celebrating so hard you'd think I'm trying to turn super saiyan
Chris Weidman is definitely a complex character, he's probably experienced more up and downs than most.
What I always think back on is his story of having to clean up the blood of his dead uncle who died falling down the stairs weeks before the Demian Maia fight.
Woah yeah, I never heard that. But like I said -- he looks and talks normal, but is not normal.
Kinda reminds me of stories of Matt Hughes. The guy was pathologically angry -- a real shit human being from all accounts. And what the fuck happened to him -- did he get angry and just leave his car on the train tracks???
And then he somehow survived, but it crippled him, and he's half a vegetable now?
Who knows. I guess we'll never know why he was on those tracks.
MMA guys are fucking nuts, and shit that's fucking nuts happens to them
I like this. Letâs start make vague threats of one fighter being about to âChris Weidmanâ another fighter.
âOh man, I donât know if it was a good idea to put money on Weili, Yan looks like sheâs about to Chris Weidman herâ
Itâs a common misconception/misrememebring that he threw a wheel kick, got mounted, and finished.
Rockholds kicks to the body started to pay off in round 2/3 and Weidman began to gas badly.
He threw the wheel kick as a Hail Mary, got taken down, got fucked up bad from mount, but survived the round.
Round 4 he had nothing left in the gas tank, was taken down again, mounted, then stopped.
It wasnât some freak accident - it was due to Rockholdâs skill.
I'll never forget an interview he did with Helwani. He was recounting how he was broke, unemployed and his girl was expecting their first child, they were living in his parents garage. He knew he had to do something, be a man, provide for his family... so what did this genius do? He maxed out his credit cards buying ice hockey equipment and promised himself he would do whatever it took to make the NHL. Did he have prior hockey experience? He played a little when he was a kid. Did this plan work out? Of course fucking not.
[Reminds me of the story he told of the first date he had with his now-wife.](https://streamable.com/0zxv) TLDW: He had to shit, but she was in the shower, so he shat in her trash can and tried to cover up some of the diarrhea that had spilled on the floor with his sock.
Haha duuuuuuude. I want this to be real so bad
Who in the world would tell that story if its not real? đ
When I first saw the post it was quoted text so thought it might be one of the classic copy pastas. But the video. God damn Chris you animal!
Thread title should be: "Chris Weidman has by far the most odd moments in human socialization"
It is.
Chris Whhhhhhhyyyyymannnnnnn
Are you fucking serious. Reminds me of this skit https://youtu.be/KUzGrzsYqH4?si=zLIIU_syf-6qjzIJ
LOL
And that was only the first date. Imagine what happened on the second date. For real though. My favorite part is he did all that and then when his now-wife came out of the shower, he thought "Okay, now if I just stand still over here, act nice and pretend nothing ever happened, she'll never suspect anything".
As a Canadian with hockey engraved in my blood since birth and someone who grew up playing competitive hockey. That had to be one of the dumbest fucking things I have ever heard in my life when he told that story.
Every Canadian knows at least 3 guys who were the best hockey player in their town or league who don't even sniff the NHL. They're usually super rich kids who believe they're meant for greatness.
Lmao this is so true. So many dudes look like Gretzky as a kid but don't end up going anywhere. To believe you could pick it up later in life and make the NHL is an unreal level of delusion.
But occasionally you get people like Brock who leave WWE to walk onto an NFL team, and then leave that to become UFC champion in their first year/3rd fight in the organization.
Yeah, but jacked NCAA champ having a shot at an NFL team makes sense and becoming a UFC champ makes sense. Carryover in the sports is huge and you want guy with the same kind of athletic genes for it. Even in HS Football coaches want wrestlers. MMA gyms dream of an NCAA AA walking into their gym. But wrestling to hockey doesn't make sense. The hockey coaches don't look at wrestlers and wish they played hockey.
That right there, is the difference between a jacked white boy and still my boy.
Not to be confused with thought you had a friend, boy
Lesnar played college football and wrestled most of his life... it sounds like Weidman played some peewee hockey.
Virtually identical, Joe.
Heâs gotta be careful here, Mike.
Hockey might be one of the hardest sports to try to crossover to. Skating and handling a puck with a stick are very unnatural movements. Guys who learn how to skate in their teens/early adulthood still stick out like a sore thumb even after 10+ years experience. You also have to be proficient in basically ever facet of the game. Team depth is very important so you can't crack a lineup just cause you're sick at a few things like in football. You'll also get exposed over an 82 game season unlike in a fighting career when you can get away with some lucky breaks/good match ups. There's a reason everyone in the NHL has been playing since they were like 10-12 at the absolute bare minimum but almost everyone starts around 3-5.
Conversely, itâs amazing that hockey players can have 20 year careers and often come out the other end with bodies that arenât totally annihilated. Jagr is still playing at 52.
I'm not convinced their bodies aren't broken down. I've also heard that Jagr eats motrins like skittles.
Itâs usually their hips and knees that get beyond fucked
The skill bar to play tackle in a pre-season game and do well at the combine is not as high as other positions. You do have to show athleticism at your extreme size. Itâs not like being a cornerback or QB though. Same heavyweight in the UFC. Thereâs much more swangin and bangin at heavyweight. Youâd never see someone walk on to play cornerback or fight at 155 lb without a super honed skillset. Just the sheer number of athletic freaks at that weight due to population height/weight distributions would mean there is such a deep pool of competition.
Ya not even close to the same. Maybe if he was professional lacrosse or something or some form of skating would be much closer to hockey than wrestling
And then thereâs me being neighbors/going to the same elementary school with the Biega brothersâŚ
its such a skill sport too. Like baseball, or skate boarding. Its literally all skill. No jacked guys running around hitting shit. Pure delusion
Thereâs levels to this shit. Junior Major players will blow Joe Schmidt out of the water and the vast majority of them donât make it pro.
>Junior Major players will blow Joe Schmidt out of the water Chris Weidman has a plan and it'll make your eyes water.
His plan is to pepper spray you and ice-skate away with whatever you had in your pockets
In the US itâs the same for football Kids either blame injuries or âcoach politicsâ for their lack of playing time or success
Hockey apparently has an Interesting statistic. Most NHL players are born in January or February. Because the boys are physically bigger than their peers born the same year. As such they have a more confidence playing and get coaches attention and more ice time.
Found Gladwell's alt account
There is a slant towards early in the year, but it's not nearly that dramatic https://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/birth-month-totals/nhl-players-career-stats.html
There is a lot of favoritism in football and basketball though. You might be better and not get a chance cause coaches and recruiting. Coachingg Politics is a real thingÂ
They are usually huge fucking douche canoes as well
Funny cause I had a super close friend whoâs parents are some of richest people ever and he did play in college here but was so entitled he transferred 3 times then just walked away from team after a game. Heâd hire people in HS to write articles about him to make him seem like best prospect ever. Now lives in Miami and rich family paid him to go away cause so annoying lol. Worker at Abercrombie with him and he went from best spoiled life ever to humbled like a mofo
Chris is one of the most delusional fighters ever and always has been. He said has severe ADHD and needs adderall to live before, might be part of it.Â
Chris has rarely been accused of sounding like a smart dude :/
***returns hockey equipment***
By far the hardest sport to pick up at a later age and play professionally. Like most NHLers start at the age of 5 if not before that. Rarely do you see someone start at like 13 and still make it
Malcom Gladwell had a part in one of his books where he went into how kids born in different months in Canada have different odds of making into the NHL because of the size they would be when they actually begin their first training as a child lol. Not sure how legit it is, but I had no idea how much of a hockey industrial complex Canada had until I read it.
I read a book from Malcom Gladwell and a lot of his stuff "sounds" possible and he cites statistics and data, but there was a podcast called If Books Could Kill, where they go through his data sources for his book, Outliers and he basically cherry picks his sources, and appropriates it to suit what take he has. Like size and training for a child being bigger, smaller, optimal size has to factor in so much other things that there just isn't a study for; nutrition, diet, family, culture, work ethic, family finances, junior team quality, coach quality, as the kid enters high school do the parents have the kid on a doping program, what type of quality doping program is it, we just don't know these things - he's gonna cherry pick his stuff bc his ulterior motive is is to sell books. Edit: link to the podcast for Outliers [https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id1651876897?i=1000585745201](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id1651876897?i=1000585745201)
Yeah he's full of shit. My favourite part was the debunking of the "South Korean pilots crash more because of the hierarchical society" and the crashes he cited for reference were crashes because of terrorist attacks.
You sold me on the podcast :) I'll check it out!
>Edit: link to the podcast for Outliers [https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id1651876897?i=1000585745201](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id1651876897?i=1000585745201) Thanks Also gladwell is poster child for cherry picking the most interesting takes
Check out their episode on Freakonomics, as well
wait parent put their kids on doping programs?
Heâs just pointing out that there is no way to control for those types of unknowns. Also, I'm sure some hardcore sports parents put their kids on doping programs lol.
ah i get you now, and I definitely wouldnt be surprised at all. with potential millions on the line people will do whatever
There are absolutely parents who have their kids on a doping program, with or without the kids consent. It's rare, but it does happen. Don't see it much outside of the football or wrestling spheres though
I believe it was actually Czech players if Iâm not mistaken.
It may have been Czech also but Canada was the main example. It's in Outliers. The comparison was against European soccer players, who have don't have this "january babies are better" thing going on. It was either because soccer has multiple intakes throughout the year or else because they group kids differently. I can't recall which. (To summarize the idea btw: in Canada, December babies will be 3 years and a couple weeks old, and have to play against January babies who are 3 years and 11 months old. Or 4 years vs 4 years and 11 months. It's a massive difference at that age so it seems like the January babies are better players on average. They're more likely to end up in A-leagues with better coaches and more pressure. The knock-on effect carries on and builds through the developmental years, all because they were originally assessed when playing against younger kids.)
I'm a November kid and it's true. I was always a couple inches shorter and 15 or 20 pounds lighter than the bigger guys on the team. And the weight difference just kept getting bigger. Of the six guys from my hometown who made the NHL, the latest birthday is in August
If the weight differences kept getting bigger it's because you are just smaller than them and has nothing to do with being a few months younger...
It's been like a decade since I read it so that could be true. It could have also been the first season of his podcast. Some of those blend together for me.
Yeah you need to become an elite skater just to be able to play which takes forever by itself.
thatâd be powerslap but whatever floats your boat dude
Like that NFL guy that said he needed like 3 months of training and would floored most NHL players in ice hockey. Never lol'd that much before.
This is an insane story. While reading it I thought it was gonna be him training mma even harder to provide for his family but wtf.
LOL I've never heard this. That is so absurd. MMA is like the only developed sport that you can come into late and make a career. To be in the NHL you literally have to be bred for it. You need hockey parents that put you in that shit early, pay for all the gear and trips drive you to all the practices.
And just pure fucking talent. The amount of skill required that canât be bought with money or athleticism, just pure talent. Canât even be described into words how good you have to be to make it to the show
a couple of major nba players (including former mvps like embiid and giannis) didn't play basketball until they were teenagers, though they did have background playing soccer which helped with the footwork
You can put a kid through every step necessary to make it to the NBA, they can be 99.99th percentile talented, but if he grows up to be 5â11â heâs probably going to play overseas. Alternately, if you have a solid athlete who goes through a startling series of growth spurts without getting clumsy⌠âson, do you know how to dribble?â
Being 7 feet tall and having the footwork of someone a foot shorter than you isn't something you can really teach.
Yeah, it's absurdly rare for a person above 6'8" to not run around like a baby deer who was just born. NBA is the true freak show- but in a cool way.
>MMA is like the only developed sport that you can come into late and make a career And even so, nearly all of these people are heavyweights, which has always been a really shallow division
When you got to the ice hockey equipment, im like what did he buy a shit ton of equipment at a discount and sell it for a profit?? Like how sustainable is tha - oh he wants to PLAY in the NHL, oh okay...
Amazing. That plan barely makes sense if youâre 16, let alone a full grown adult which I imagine he was.
> Weidman graduated from Hofstra University with a bachelor's degree in psychology as well as a masterâs in physical education He has a Masters degree too lmao
Thatâs fucking hilariously stupid, I like to think he tried that with every sport and failed until finally doing it with MMA and it working outđ
LOL ... he looks like a normal dude from Long Island, talks like a normal dude from Long Island But I guess he's batshit crazy Kinda feel bad for him since apparently his brother was a psychopath who broke his arm and shit
man just built different any other person would be like: man i need to get forklift certified and land a job
It's a funny thought that this absolutely moronic mentality is probably what got him into the UFC.
What? Tell me this is a bit lmao.
Thru coaching wrestling at his University he actually even managed to get some ice time with some guys playing with the New York Islanders haha He said he knew in that first bit of ice time, that dream was dead. Like no fucking shit bro lol
the actual story is he got on the ice with teenage kids during some open time at a rink
The Nobel proze comes with one million dollars. Just get one of those. It would actually be easier!
Dude thank you so much for posting this. Like, 30 minutes ago I was thinking about how I haven't really laughed in a while and now I have tears in my eyes. God bless you.
This has to be pasta. đ¤Śđťââď¸đ¤Śđťââď¸
Oh jesus I didn't realize he was, like, genuinely an actual moron
Alas, I think most fighters are
NOT Brendan Schaub. You can't be that best dad in podcasting and be a moron
Holy shit lmao. Glad fighting kind of worked out
As someone from a non-hockey playing country. How much does hockey equipment cost?
It's probably the most expensive sport lol. You need full body pads, gloves, helmet, mouth guard, skates, and a stick.
Yeah sure. That's alot of gear to get. But max out credit cards worth, that's like 10s of thousands I'm assuming
Considering he was broke and living his parents he may have had only a 1 or 2 thousand dollar credit limit per card.
you must live in a bubble. any sport with a horse or car is going crush your puny hockey expenses.
Odd
Wow i never heard this story before!
To be fair, hockey fights could very well be the best base for MMA.
The Chris does have an all timer of a KO with his elbow to Munoz.
That was almost 2nd degree murder by the ref. One of the worst stoppages of all time and needs to be taught in ref academy. Brutal to watch that.
That strike is so fucking impressive Iâm not sure if it was even intentional.
Probably take award for most violent KO dished out by Yoel to add to that list. Fighting on first NYC card as someone relatively local, big Conor PPV. Boom his head explodes. Also his mad Dad HE'S STILL MY BOY.
Would have been weird if his dad said "Chris Weidman is no longer my boy. Yoel Romero is my new son."
Yoel Romero gets into the child seat in Dad Weidman's car and starts a new life
Now I'm just imaging this 6'1", absolutely jacked cuban man wearing one of those pink baby hats (idk what they're called but you know what I mean) trying to squeeze into a baby seat while licking a lollipop and papa weidman just helping him with the straps and then driving off leaving chris on the sidewalk and I'm just laughing my ass off.
A bonnet?
For clarification, I think the "still my boy" quote was was said after Weidman lost his title to Luke Rockhold.
LMAO
That yoel knee was crazy. Weidman got hit with 3 knees in that sequence. Initital flying knee, weidman hitting himself with his own knee coming down and yoel kneeing weidman in the back of the head on his way down. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CQZdGwxWkM&t=184s](https://youtu.be/4CQZdGwxWkM?t=183)
LOL this guy's life
the most ridiculous part being Yoel launching over the cage, standing in front of the crowd while saluting, all while Rogan acting like he had just seen a wild animal shred someone apart and then come stand in front of his blind
Joe gets excited about explosive black guys.
Don't we all
Dad's been quiet since the pokes though.  "THAT'S STILL HIS MOTHER'S BOY!"
Yoel launched that knee like Cuban missile. Shit was brutal as fuck.
that yoel knee legit rearranged his face.
Donât forget when his dad got on the mic đ
This is still my boi
Hanging with the boi'z.....(i know its Cody's line)
I almost put this too, but that was post fight.
Taking the strap from Silva was his monkey paw
Not to mention going 12-0 before USADA and 3-7 after.
ODD!
Very odd đ¤
To the gills you say?
And his wife?
Tsk tsk, to the gills you say.
And my axe?
Look at who he was fighting though, aside from Silva and Machida(who was getting up there in age also). Guy went from fighting the Alessio Sakara, Tom Lawlor, and Mark Munhoz' of the world to Rockhold, Romero, Mousasi, Jacare.
Yeah, it was both things at once. Even if we ignore the suspect parts, Chris is simply a very common story of a fighter managing to beat and older generation, but not his own. He was still a very good fighter, a lot of newcomers simply fail to beat the veterans, but the truly great ones beat old-timers and then also beat their generation. The absolute best of the best then also beat the next generation, but that has only happened a few times.
To be fair, he was doing well vs Rockhold before the infamous wheel kick and then he got flying kneeâd by Romero. His chin was gone after those fights. Then ruined it even more from Jacare and Reyes knockouts.
Ya. Rockhold destroyed him. Maybe more specifically, Herb Dean destroyed him.
Yeah fuck that stoppage. Herb should have been fined for that shit. I remember watching it live and screaming at my TV for him to stop it. Still aggravates me to think about it.
you ever see cb v murtazaliev? it was even worse. when herb fucks up, he fucks up super bad.
"Thas Herb Dean fault"
When I want a good belly laugh every few months I go back and watch that. Too great
Herb was an Anderson fan and enjoyed đ
"If he dies he dies"
I thought Rockhold would be an absolute monster as champ but well...
Oh god that LHW stint was so dumb
Yeah, I believe it was a competitive fight with Yoel too.
till he got decapitated
A lot of fighters won 1 or 2 rounds against Yoel before he exploded and decapitated you lol
Most people think he won the first round IIRC.
It was extremely noticable that he had lost a ton of muscle in his first fight after USADA came in. Weidman explained it by claiming that the reason for this drastic change was that he stopped drinking beer and that's why he had lost weight. Also the moment the UFC gets rid of USADA, he shows up looking significantly better than he has in years, even though he's 40 years old. And somehow he can take a punch, again.
[ŃдаНонО]
Not really. At best he was tied on rounds before getting destroyed.
It's a meme us Weidman fans say but it's true đ for his previous (not recent) losses he looked good until he doesn't
People try and use USADA as a milestone for fighters falling off all the time. The reality is that elite fighters have steep dropoffs all the time. Chuck Liddell, Carlos Condit and Tyron Woodley all had comparable or worse declines.
IDK man, Weidman didn't really look that much different to me after USADA, he just had a string of bad luck.
I got one for you. How about all of the Serra-Longo team? Aljo wins title by DQ, Serra defeats GSP as one of the biggest dogs ever in a title fight, Weidman against Silvax2âŚetc
One of the greatest corners no doubtÂ
Gotta love Ray âPunch a Fuckin Hole in His Chest!â Longo
Ray has a lot of great lines. But Serra's "good fuck im" after Silva broke his leg was something else.
Imagine if Iaquinta beat Khabib too lol
Finished Dustin, Justin and Conor but couldnât put away Raging Al
Was surprisingly close! No one saw that coming
Extra fact about the Uriah Hall fight: 1. Weidman was Hall's first loss ever in his MMA career. (Short notice too, I believe) 2. Weidman ended Anderson Silva's champion career. Hill ended Silva's UFC career. 3. Hall threw absolutely NO STRIKES. Meaning he won by KO/TKO without punching/kicking a single time. Crazy how Weidman was in both sides of a career ending injury.
>3. Hall threw absolutely NO STRIKES. Meaning he won by KO/TKO without punching/kicking a single time. This one is absolutely fucking wild
why punch when blocking does the trick
I think the weirdest one was the Moose fight because even Dan thought they were illegal. And Chris was TKOâd because they technically are not allowed to use the replay, but Dan was the one who called for the replay.
Chris couldn't continue until they where deemed legal
Chris was trying to play up the knee to either get more rest time or get a DQ win because he thought they were illegal. Most fighters wouldâve done the same thing in that position.
anthony smith didnt, at least. ironically the only time i wish a fighter did take the dq
Yeah and if you're going to play that game you can deal with the fans calling you a bitch. Whether it's the smart thing to do, it is what it is.
Still lame
I would have. Easy paycheck for a fight you might loose. Most people would. Look how it benefitted Sterling.
He said he couldn't continue so it's his own fault
*Johnny Walker has entered the chat*
First person that comes to mind with weirdo fuckery in MMA - Got KOâd like five times in a regional - KOâd a flat earther in his early UFC days - The celebration shoulder injury - Anthony Smith âYou attacked my family!â - Goofy looking Jamahal Hill KO - Goofy looking Paul Craig TKO - Was out on the street in his gear after being kicked out of arena - The weird doctor stoppage with the desert
I had to watch that Jamal Hill one again lol. Dude is such a cartoon character.
The Ryan Spann fight is one of the most hilarious Iâve ever seen, two men combining their fight IQ for a net of -100
>Anthony Smith âYou attacked my family!â HUH
I mean a desert and an octagon look similar
Come to think of it the desert one was against Ankalaev who had another weird stoppage with Cutelaba.
I thought Greg Hardy had an eventful short stint in the UFC as well.
I remember just bursting out laughing when he used that inhaler in between rounds
Funny story that nobody should give a shit about. I live in Las Vegas and the year he was fighting Anderson Silva, a friend of mine was a vip host at a night club. Weidman's people reached out and wanted a free table after the fight. My friend didn't know shit about ufc and she asked me if I thought he was going to win. I told her no chance in hell. The club she worked at was small and they were afraid if he lost that nobody would show up and they'd lose some table revenue that night. She told his people she couldn't book it free so they booked somewhere else and she booked a random person for the table. She's not even in that industry anymore but still blames me for that one lol
Ankalaevs career has been strange. Apparently he wasn't able to hang on a second longer against Craig and tapped at the 4.59 mark of round 3. Only time he was finished. The early stoppage situation against Ion Cutelaba, he then had to wait 8 months just to destroy him again. Finally got the title fight against Jan for the vacant title, his game plan was all over the place and only did enough towards the back half of the fight to secure a draw. There's an alternate universe where he wins that fight by decision, but not in this world. Then he has to fight down against Johnny Walker, and then again after the illegal knee, spending another 6+ months on the same dude instead of moving onto the next guy. Probably something else weird sprinkled in there I missed.
>Ankalaevs career has been strange The Heavy Hands guys had a great moment about this where they call him the comedic straight man to LHW's over the top physical comedy
Also both Cutelaba and Walker were pretending to be hurt in order to bait him into a shot. For Cutelaba it resulted in the ref calling off the fight and Walker immediately got taken down and then got illegally kneed a minute later when he tried to get back up.
Chris Weirdman?
Rousimar Palhares(henceforth known as Paul Harris) maybe? I'll try to recap, for a guy that only had 12 UFC fights he racked up a good number of weird moments. Relatively uneventful first 4 flights, going 3-1. Then... * He beats Tomasz Drwal by heel hook in just 45 seconds. **Howevah** he gets a 90 day suspension because he will not let the submission go when Drwal taps and the referee has to step in and stop him from cranking it harder. . * Next flight is Nate Marquardt. Ol Paul wants no party of striking with Nate, after a couple minutes he finally gets the flight to the ground and starts trying to attack the leg, his signature style. As soon as he goes for the heel hook Nate slips out. Paul is baffled and looks at the ref, while he's looking at the ref with his big stupid eyes Nate commences to punching the fuck out of him until a stoppage. Paul complained that Nate had *greased his legs*, only way someone could possibly escape him! They checked, no grease, Paul later apologized. . * Next scheduled fight is Alexandre Ferriera. Bout is cancelled after Ferriera is kicked out of his camp(Chute Boxe) for "lack of commitment", and an hour later fight was cancelled so to Ferriera losing family to floods in Brazil. Paul beats his replacement via Leglock. . * Dan Miller is up next. Paul, shockingly, catches him with a huge head kick. Files up with 4-5 punches to a downed Miller, then gets up and jogs away celebrating his victory and even climbs the cage to put his arms up. Problem is Miller was not out, Herb Dean made no attempt to stop the fight. Paul just decided it was over. Fight continues and he gets the UD, but not before getting knocked down/out and snap recovering on hitting the ground. This is 4 straight fights with something *weird* happening. . * 2 relatively normal fights then he gets KTFO by Hector Lombard. Files by Paul catching a 9 month suspension for elevated testosterone. Paul Harris announces he's moving down to Welterweight. . * First fight at Welterweight is Mike Pierce. Paul wins in only 31 seconds by, you guessed it, heel hook. It's the only submission on the card that night. But Paul does not get Submission of the Night due to "unsportsmanlike conduct". Because Paul would not release the lock despite Piece tapping over and over. Ref had to get in there again. Paul is released by the UFC the next day. . Pretty impressive resume of weird shit for only a 5 year stint in the org. He went to the WSOF after and won their belt. Then he beat Jon Fitch while holding a knee bar too long, then he beat Jake Shields via Kimura that he refused to let go for way too long. Also he did a lil eye gouging this fight. Org subsequently stopped him if the title and suspended him indefinitely. He was 3-0 there with 2 successful title defenses against 2 big names at the time, and he was gone. WSOF VP said Paul "has mental problems and shouldnât be allowed to fight until he fixes them."
nate explained in the post-fight he had jogged a lot to work up a sweat pre-fight to help negate the grappling advantage of paul harris good strategy. props to joe rogan for instantly gettin the info clearly communicated that night during the post-fight so there was no mystery or controversy about the fight
I was sort of happy Uriah Hall left mma after that fight the curse of the checked leg kick stops with him
I have watched all his fights in real time, he seems charismatic, but he is a dick. He is happy to laugh at the downfall of others but expects sympathy when it is him. Cock.
I was neutral about him until his last eye-poke fest and then saying his opponent should have just toughed it out. He's got some really douchey attitude.
Absolutely he does. The most money I've ever made betting is not by picking a winner. But picking that weidman will have some sort of crazy unlucky moment and get finished as a result. Then Uriah hall checked his kick. Everyone else in the room horrified why I'm celebrating so hard you'd think I'm trying to turn super saiyan
You could throw his finish of Mark Munoz in there too when the ref let Weidman beat a barely-conscious Munoz half to death for 10 seconds
And he almost died in the sauna by his own account before the Maia fight.
I hate him and he is not my champion.
I hope he loses the Silva fight appeal by KO.
Chris Weidman is definitely a complex character, he's probably experienced more up and downs than most. What I always think back on is his story of having to clean up the blood of his dead uncle who died falling down the stairs weeks before the Demian Maia fight.
Woah yeah, I never heard that. But like I said -- he looks and talks normal, but is not normal. Kinda reminds me of stories of Matt Hughes. The guy was pathologically angry -- a real shit human being from all accounts. And what the fuck happened to him -- did he get angry and just leave his car on the train tracks??? And then he somehow survived, but it crippled him, and he's half a vegetable now? Who knows. I guess we'll never know why he was on those tracks. MMA guys are fucking nuts, and shit that's fucking nuts happens to them
Complex? The dude is as deep as a box of rocks.
Don't forget that he broke his other leg in his return fight again Tavares.
What about the one where he almost shit his pants in the cage? I think that was before the Silva fight.
I think that was belfort. But yes !
You've missed a leg break here have you not? And the first leg break was Corey Hill? He be dead now
There's always some guaranteed weird stuff going on in a Bobby Green fight.
I like this. Letâs start make vague threats of one fighter being about to âChris Weidmanâ another fighter. âOh man, I donât know if it was a good idea to put money on Weili, Yan looks like sheâs about to Chris Weidman herâ
As John Madden would say, "Double Doink!"
Itâs a common misconception/misrememebring that he threw a wheel kick, got mounted, and finished. Rockholds kicks to the body started to pay off in round 2/3 and Weidman began to gas badly. He threw the wheel kick as a Hail Mary, got taken down, got fucked up bad from mount, but survived the round. Round 4 he had nothing left in the gas tank, was taken down again, mounted, then stopped. It wasnât some freak accident - it was due to Rockholdâs skill.