Chris Weidman was on this week's episode of "Garbage Time with Katie Nolan" and he had some interesting things to say. Katie asked him about his upcoming title defense against Vitor Belfort at UFC 187 this Saturday, as well as other topics such as his nickname, the system of numbering UFC events, cutting weight, and other subjects. As we find out in this interview, both Katie and Chris graduated from Hofstra University. I feel this was an excellent interview with Chris Weidman, and I learned some things about him that I didn't know before this interview.
Nolan began the interview by asking Weidman about Belfort failing 2 drug tests. His response was: "I can't control what he's taking. I just know that there's an insecurity there obviously that he's trying to fill a void. And I'm going to find that insecurity when I'm in the cage with him and I'm going to beat him up."
When Katie pointed out that she felt Chris's nickname "The All-American" was 'so boring' he agreed and then responded: "I denounced my nickname literally like three years ago. There was another guy named the All-American [referring to former Marine/UFC fighter now commentator, Brian Stann] and he won a fight. He was like a war hero and stuff like that, so I'm like I'm no longer All-American, that's his name, I'm done. And then people just didn't pay attention to me, the just keep calling me All-American."
Nolan had asked Weidman how much he weighed at the moment and he jokingly responded that you don't ask fighters that question, before saying "I weigh, I'm pretty light right now. I'm 205." Then Katie asked him: "How do you lose 20 lbs in one week?" so he could get down to Middleweight limit of 185 lbs and Chris replied: "It's complicated... basically you do no sodium, so you don't retain the water. And then you drink lots of water, it flushes out your system. Then 24 hours before you actually make the weight just do a bunch of sauna workouts, running, and just kind of sweat it out. I'll end up cutting about 10lbs in 24 hours is what it usually comes down to, which is not that bad." When Nolan said: "That's insane." Weidman replied: "I've done 32 lbs in ten days." Nolan said again: "That's insane." and Weidman told her: "I almost died, I don't recommend it."
Then Katie asked Chris: "So it's hard for you to be 185, what is your food weakness? If you were on death row and you got to choose your last meal - entree, desert, and beverage - what would it be?" and he replied: "I'm going pizza and bagels. Together, I have to do it together... maybe bagel bites, but big bagels. For desert, chocolate. Just a brownie with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge & peanut butter somewhere on there. Beverage, am I getting put to death? If I'm getting put to death then I'm going to need something that's strong. I'll go with, just because I'm from Long Island a Long Island Iced Tea."
Katie moved on to a game she called "Punch, Drunk, Love" where she names three people and Chris has to say who he wants to punch, who he'd want to get drunk with, and which person he loves. The first set of options were - Ronda Rousey; The Rock [referring to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]; and Floyd Mayweather. After Katie cleared up that 'Love' didn't mean making love with that person, but 'Oh, I love...' Chris went with: "Drunk, The Rock; Punch, Floyd Mayweather; and Love, Ronda Rousey." The next set of options were - Kanye West; Justin Bieber; and Miley Cyrus. Chris went with: "Justin Bieber is getting punched. First time I saw him walk out with Floyd Mayweather for his boxing fight I was like 'That dude needs to get punched'. Miley Cyrus; Love, and Kanye West; I guess we're going to get drunk, Kanye West." before joking: "I knind of want to punch them all."
Nolan advised Weidman to go hit the sauna because he had some weight to cut, and to wrap up the segment Katie offered some luck to Chris with the old actors saying of 'break a leg", which is an obvious reference to the main event of UFC 168 where former UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva broke his leg in a rematch with Chris in December of 2013. (Weidman had knocked out Silva to become the UFC's Middleweight champion a few months prior at UFC 161.)
As mentioned earlier, both Katie and Chris went to Hofstra University in the Hempstead Village section of Long Island, New York. Chris earned All-American wrestling honors twice at Nassau Community College before transferring to Hofstra. He became the first junior college wrestler in history to be a NYS Collegiate Champion. At Hofstra, he became a two-time Division I All-American, placing 3rd at the NCAA tournament his senior year. Weidman graduated from Hofstra University with a bachelor's degree in Psychology. During the interview Chris says he "graduated a couple of times" but his Wikipedia page & UFC profile only mention the bachelor's degree in Psychology. Katie Nolan graduated from Hofstra in 2009 with a B.A. in Public Relations. Before hosting "Garbage Time" Nolan was a 'digital correspondent' for the former Fox Sports 1 show "Crowd Goes Wild" and hosts a web series on FoxSports.com called "No Filter with Katie Nolan".
"Garbage Time with Katie Nolan" is a weekly 30 minute show airing on Fox Sports 1 at 9:30PM Eastern. I am a big fan of Katie Nolan because I like the way she brings he unique perspective as a sports fan to not only her weekly show "Garbage Time", but on all of her appearance on the Fox Sports family of channels & shows as well as what she posts on the Fox Sports website and her YouTube channel.
I find it refreshing to have a "fan's view" on the current events in sports, and I would rather see a show like "Garbage Time" over the 'sports news' shows with their 'cookie-cutter' format, because you can see former athletes and commentators with a background in communications or journalism talking about sports from a predictable (meaning BORING) perspective on any of several channels devoted to sports all hours of the day to the point where things blur together and you can't tell who is who, or even what show you are watching.
Give me a show with someone like Katie's anytime. I can appreciate a fresh approach to a tired format, and I enjoy how she will ask the 'unexpected' questions rather than see a guest answer the same questions that get asked 100 times on every other show. Thinking "out of the box" is one of the main reasons I make sure that Sunday night at 9:30PM I am tuned to Fox Sports 1 for "Garbage Time with Katie Nolan".
You can find past episodes of "Garbage Time" at Katie's YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/KatieNolanOfficial
The Chris Weidman episode can also be seen at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-7infXzszY
