The UFC will not present its next fight card until July 6. A middleweight title fight between champion Anderson Silva and No. 1 ranked challenger Chris Weidman will headline that event, UFC 162.
Weidman is undefeated as a professional, going 9-0 since making his debut with Ring of Combat in February 2009. Of those nine bouts, six have ended before the expiration of regulation time. Weidman, an All-American wrestler and brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, has three submissions and three knockouts to his name.
Weidman’s UFC record is 5-0 with two decisions, two submissions and one knockout. His last submission came at UFC 139, where he used a d’arce choke to turn the lights off on Tom Lawlor.
Entering UFC 139, Weidman was 6-0 overall and 2-0 in the UFC. Weidman’s two previous UFC bouts were as an injury replacement.
His first, a unanimous decision win over Alessio Sakara, came on 11 days notice and saw Weidman entering the Octagon with a broken rib.
His second bout with the promotion was as a replacement for an injured Court McGee. In that fight, Weidman earned “Submission of the Night” honors with a guillotine choke win over Jesse Bongfeldt.
By the time Weidman met Lawlor, he had established a set pattern in his approach to opening his fights, a pattern he also utilized against Lawlor. Weidman’s approach is to utilize strikes to set up takedowns and then transition to side control where he patiently waits for an opening to utilize his submission skills.
This blueprint has been very successful for Weidman, as the attached video and his perfect record can attest.
The question now is will Weidman present a new look when he meets Silva at the MGM Grand on July 6, or will he rely on the skills that earned him a title shot?
How Weidman answers that question may determine if he has a shot at upsetting Silva or becoming another statistic in the record setting run of the middleweight champ.
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