The UFC is taking a three-week hiatus until their next event, UFC 162, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to start promoting the main event between Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman right now.
The new 30-second trailer is about Weidman’s rise from hot prospect to top contender, with various UFC fighters talking about how impressed they’ve been with “The All-American.”
The video opens with a caption that reads “THE PERFECT FIGHTER,” as former two-time lightweight challenger Gray Maynard gives his opinion on the fellow collegiate All-American wrestler.
“He’s hungry, confident … the kid’s a beast,” Maynard said.
“THE PERFECT RECORD,” the next caption says, before UFC color commentator Joe Rogan makes a bold claim about the 29-year-old Long Island native.
“He is the perfect man to defeat Anderson Silva,” Rogan says definitively.
Weidman enters the middleweight title bout with a 9-0 professional mixed martial arts record, with key wins over fellow contender Mark Munoz and former middleweight title challenger Demian Maia.
Next up, friend/occasional training partner, welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre gives Weidman the biggest endorsement to date.
“I believe Chris Weidman will be the next middleweight champion,” St-Pierre states.
After a few brief highlights for both Weidman and Silva are shown, former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans admits that despite the admiration he has for “The Spider,” Weidman may have his number.
“You know, Anderson Silva is my favorite fighter to watch … but I don’t know,” Evans proclaims with a smile.
Silva enters the match up with about as much momentum as a fighter could ask for, with a perfect 16-0 record inside the Octagon and a UFC middleweight record of 10 successful title defenses in a row.
Nevertheless, it appears that Weidman has given at least a few colleagues the notion that Silva’s reign will be coming to an end very soon.
John Heinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA Editor for eDraft.com and contributes MMA videos to The Young Turks Sports Show.
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