Chris Weidman was born in Baldwin, New York on June 17. 1984.  He is the second of three children.  Chris and his older brother were very active boys, so their parents had them involved in numerous athletic activities to tire them out.  Chris started wrestling very young and with his natural athleticism mastered the sport very quickly.  By the time he graduated high school, he was a multiple county champion, New York state champion and All-American in Cadet Freestyle and Greco Roman.  Chris was also a standout in college, being the first junior college wrestler in history to be a NYS Collegiate Champion.  He went on to be a two time NJCAA All American and a two-time NCAA Division 1 All-American out of Hofstra University.

Chris met Gabriel “Monsta” Toribio while attending Hofstra who invited Chris to come to Matt and Nick Serra’s BJJ Academy to help some of the fighters with their wrestling.  Chris also took some jiu-jitsu classes and within three months he competed in and won The East Coast Grappler’s Quest in his weight class and the Absolute Division with all 13 matches ending in submissions.  He was instantly hooked.

With full time assistant coaching and graduate school at Hofstra, jiu-jitsu had to be put on hold for a while.  While coaching, Chris trained for the Olympic trials.  When his dream was not attained, Chris had to decide if he wanted to continue training for the world teams and Olympics or give MMA a shot.  Monsta bought Chris to Ray Longo’s MMA Academy and introduced Chris to Ray.  With Chris’ noticeable technique and skills, he was encouraged to train to fight.  Chris started training full time and is currently employed by Ray Longo’s MMA Academy as the wrestling instructor