MMA Fighter Chris Weidman Saves 94-Year-Old Neighbor's Life

Chris Weidman found the life of a stranger in his hands Thursday morning.

The 30-year-old mixed martial artist champion was going about his preparations for the day when he suddenly found himself frantically working to save the life of his 94-year-old neighbor.

MMAFighting.com’s Shaun Al-Shatti brings us the story of Weidman’s desperate attempts to stabilize an elderly woman who would have surely perished had the fighter not heard her cries for help.

Weidman told the story to Al-Shatti, explaining that his day began like any other.

“I was supposed to go pick up Stephen Thompson and his brother at the airport, LaGuardia, this morning,” Weidman told Al-Shatti. “So I was trying to clean out my car and it was a torrential downpour this morning. So I’m cleaning it out and all of a sudden I started hearing this noise—'Ahhh! Ahhh! Ahhh!'”

Weidman said he went out into the rain and saw a figure down the block standing in a driveway on the phone. He said the person's body language didn’t appear panicked, and he assumed the sound was coming from someone else.

He went back to cleaning his car but decided to take a drive down the block when the noise continued.

“I had my window down and I started listening,” Weidman said. “And as I’m driving past the person, I could realize it’s an older lady and she’s yelling, ‘Help me! Help me!’”

The fighter jumped out of his car, ran to the woman and saw her bleeding profusely. He then brought her to his car and drove back to his garage, where he called 911 and tried to stop the heavy bleeding.

“I call 911 and am like, ‘Listen, I have a really elderly lady here, she’s bleeding really bad, doesn’t look good. We need someone here immediately.’”

The next 20 to 30 minutes felt like an eternity, Weidman told Al-Shatti. The fighter called the police multiple times, eventually phoning a friend on the force to get paramedics to the scene.

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He maintains that during that time, the woman wavered between states of shock and panic. She said that she fell through a glass table inside her home, had five grandchildren and wanted to live “one more year.” Weidman held paper towels over her wounds and tried to keep her calm.

“I was there, trying to have her talk about normal things to distract her. ... I’m telling her, ‘You’re fine! You’re fine! You’re not dying today!' ... I’m trying to talk to her about her dogs, anything to take her mind off it.” 

The paramedics arrived and took the woman to the emergency room. Weidman said the woman was coherent when she was being taken away, but he doesn't know her current condition. The fighter said he feels lucky to have been in the right place at the right time to respond.

“I’m very lucky and blessed that I actually went that way to see what the heck that noise was, because otherwise, the block that I live on is pretty much a dead end,” Weidman said.

“No one drives down there, and she was in shock. She wasn’t able to make phone calls. She had her phone in her hand, but she wasn’t going to be able to make a phone call. ... So she was smart, she crawled outside and was yelling ‘help me’ in the middle of the freaking rain.” 

Weidman said the encounter has given him a new appreciation for the jobs of first responders, paramedics and everyone whose job it is to save lives.

“They’re the heroes and no one is hearing about it,” Weidman said. “I just happened to be at the right place, right time.”

The woman's identity has yet to be discerned, but we'll keep you updated as more details emerge. Suffice to say, however, Weidman's actions on Thursday saved or prolonged a life very much in need of a hero.

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