Chris Weidman showed off a new wrinkle to his game at UFC 194, flicking kicks in the early moments of the first round in his matchup with Luke Rockhold.
Rockhold tried to fire back with kicks and punches, but Weidman charged through. After some wild scrambles and back-takes, he scored a big power double. Rockhold would escape without much trouble, but he was smothered in the clinch game, giving minutes, and possibly the round, away as a result.
The second round opened with Rockhold landing a punch that took some of the color out of Weidman‘s skin. He recovered quickly, but Rockhold started to assert his striking superiority and got the better of each exchange. Weidman tried to recapture the momentum by working his clinch, but Rockhold managed to maintain his preferred distance through the end of the round.
Weidman went back on the offensive in the third round and upped his volume, flicking soft (but point-scoring) leg kicks before tagging Rockhold with a left and taking him down. Rockhold got back up without absorbing any damage and tried to swing things back in his favor with long punches, but he ate some hard body kicks as a result.
Rockhold ended up scoring a takedown off a silly spinning kick, landing in back mount and quickly locking up a body triangle. That turned into a mount.
Rockhold started pouring down strikes and bloodied Weidman up in a big way. Rockhold continued pouring on the punishment. The fight could have easily been stopped, but referee Herb Dean was content to let Rockhold throw a solid 30 seconds of uncontested punches and elbows until the horn sounded.
The fourth round started with Rockhold smelling blood, opening up the round on offense and pressing Weidman to the cage. Rockhold stayed on him and managed to score a big body-lock takedown, despite some cage-grabbing by Weidman.
Rockhold held top position for a long while, working his way to side control before opening up with more elbows and punches. This time, Dean was relatively quick to stop the fight, ending it three minutes and 12 seconds into Round 4.
Weidman established himself as the Randy Orton of MMA, knocking off legendary fighters like Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort, while demanding recognition as one of the greatest in the game today. That immediately made him a compelling champion, but Rockhold showed him little respect entering UFC 194.
Here are some notes and thoughts on this fight:
- Rockhold was completely on-point here, but there were undeniably some shades of Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen 2 here. The fight was neck-and-neck until that point, but when Weidman threw the spinning kick…well, it was basically all over.
- It’s tough to peg where Weidman goes from here. The man has been largely dominant as champ, but the nature of this loss makes it hard to justify an immediate rematch.
- We could see Belfort back in the title picture. While the Brazilian has more than a few detractors, he has a win over Rockhold and remains one of the biggest names in the UFC.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com