Photo by Rey Del Rio for FOXSports.com
UFC middleweight fighter Chris Weidman (8-0) stepped in on ten days notice this past Saturday night (January 28, 2012) to face submission ace Demian Maia on the main card of UFC on FOX 2.
Besides having little time to prepare for the fight, Weidman also dropped over thirty pounds to make weight for the fight. Despite all of this adversity, Weidman would walk away the unanimous decision.
Coach Ray Longo, the striking coach of the Serra-Longo Fight Team, says his fighter “broke” Maia mentally and creating doubt in the Brazilian which would eventually lead to his loss.
Longo explained his theory this past Monday on “The MMA Show with Mauro Ranallo” (hit play to listen to the whole podcast).
“If I’m in Maia’s corner, I’m telling him to press the action right away and see what Weidman has in the gas tank. You have to be in there, but I think Demian Maia felt something from Chris Weidman that broke him, that gave him a slight hesitation not to push. I think Weidman was potshotting him from the outside in the first round and maybe it made Maia think, “Maybe this guy has more gas that I think. ” Really, how is Maia going to beat him? If Weidman had a healthy camp, he may have walked through this guy.”
Also on the line with host Ranallo were Chuck Mindenhall of ESPN.com and Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Check that podcast and more at theScore.com