Coach: Chris Weidman ready to write his comeback story at UFC 210

Don’t Call it a comeback.

After sitting on top of the world following back-to-back wins over Anderson Silva, then turning away Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort to retain the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight title, Chris Weidman’s career has taken a turn for the worse.

“All American” lost his title to Luke Rockhold at UFC 194, suffering a one-sided beatdown at the hands of the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) standout. A year later, Weidman was left bloodied and battered by Yoel Romero, who delivered a crushing knee to his face at UFC 205 (see it) to hand him his second straight defeat.

According to Ray Longo -- Weidman’s head trainer — his pupil plateaued after being on top for awhile and had no where else to go but down.

“If you think about it, there was only one way to go. You can’t keep going up and up and up,” Longo said on on a recent edition of The MMA Hour (via MMA Fighting). “So we plateaued a little bit before. I think that’s going to be the mantra. That’s behind us, and we really had to go back to what got us there and really just move forward."

For Team Weidman, the climb back to the top is an enjoyable challenge. It’s a team effort made up of numerous coaches, training partners and Chris himself, who Ray says all put their blood, sweat, and tears into their camp preparing for Gegard Mousasi, who will face “All American” at this weekend’s (Sat., April 8, 2017) UFC 210 event in Buffalo, New York.

“Look, it’s always exciting working your way up to the top, and it’s really hard to hold that. Who knows, I mean I think maybe we all got scattered a little bit. But we’re all back. We’re back. I really put a lot into this camp myself as a coach, and I got a lot of help from a lot of other people, which I appreciate. I’m really psyched for this fight."

Like the phoenix, Longo expects Weidman to rise from the ashes and end the bleeding of his current skid by writing his comeback story with an impressive victory.

"No, I would have never have thought we’d be in this position, but we are and we’re ready to tackle it and really write his comeback story, man.”

It won’t be easy, as Gegard is currently on a roll and bent on proving his own worth and earning his first-ever shot at a UFC world title.

For more on the upcoming UFC 210 pay-per-view (PPV) event — which will be headlined by a Light Heavyweight title fight between Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson — click here.