Movie star and silky-smooth crooner Skylar Astin visited The Fighter and The Kid podcast again, this week, and he and co-host Brendan Schaub had lots of great things to say about UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman. "I can't say enough good [expletive] about that whole crew. Ray [Longo] and Matt [Serra], I text them all the time. They text me in the locker room," Astin marveled.
In fact, he and Weidman are close friends, with the fighter's family even having attended the premier of Astin's film, Pitch Perfect 2, recently. Schaub agreed with Astin that Weidman is not just a great guy and fighter, but also an underappreciated star in the making.
"Chris is just a good dude, man," Schaub said.
"This is my thing with Chris -- He's pound-for-pound one of the best in the world. But, for some reason...the crossover for him to be a superstar is not happening, yet. But it should be."
Both Schaub and Astin feel that the UFC should spend more time and money promoting Weidman, as they do for Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey. "Yeah, and you know what, the UFC can help, uhh, so...," Astin maintained.
Concurring, Schaub chimed in saying, "Chris Weidman should be in every single commercial...I don't get it."
Astin said he understood why the UFC would invest so much in McGregor's star, as he readies to challenge Jose Aldo for the featherweight championship next month at UFC 189. Schaub, however, thinks that there's a risk with focusing so much on McGregor, even though he's a huge admirer of the Irishman.
"Let me tell you something about Conor, Aldo and putting all your eggs in that basket. Hey FOX, hey UFC, I'm Team Conor. I love Conor. He's Fighter and The Kid alumni. I love the guy, I think he's great for the sport. Jose Aldo hasn't lost in nine years," he explained.
According to Schaub, the possible down side to promoting McGregor so much as a huge threat to Aldo is that, should the challenger lose badly to Aldo, the promotion may lose some credibility.
"This is the worst thing that could happen to the UFC -- If Conor goes out there and gets destroyed in the first round, and there's all this marketing done, then all that sh-- talking looks ridiculous," he reasoned.
"It's cool when you're knocking dudes out. As soon as it goes south, the entire media, the entire fan base goes 'whoa, bulls---.' They have to pray to God that Conor at least makes it competitive."
Do you think that Weidman is under promoted by the UFC, or do you think that becoming a star simply takes a long time, as it did for the likes of Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, and Anderson Silva? Let us know in the comments section and on Facebook and Twitter!
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