In each of his record 10 consecutive UFC middleweight title defenses, Anderson Silva has enjoyed the oddsmakers blessings as the favorite to retain his strap. Although nothing will change in that regard when Silva locks horns with unbeaten middleweight…
In each of his record 10 consecutive UFC middleweight title defenses, Anderson Silva has enjoyed the oddsmakers blessings as the favorite to retain his strap.
Although nothing will change in that regard when Silva locks horns with unbeaten middleweight young gun Chris Weidman at UFC 162 in July, “The Spider,” a 3.05-to-1 favorite (-305), according to Bovada.com, remains cognizant that he’s facing one of the biggest challenges of his illustrious career.
Strong, fast, young and extremely talented, the 28-year-old Weidman has all the ingredients to end the longest reign in UFC history.
Here are three reasons the soon-to-be 38-year-old Silva should fear “The All-American”.
UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s next title defense will take place at UFC 162 and will be against the unbeaten Chris Weidman. Weidman will bring an unbeaten 9-0 record with him when he steps into the Octagon to face Silva in Las …
UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s next title defense will take place at UFC 162 and will be against the unbeaten Chris Weidman.
Weidman will bring an unbeaten 9-0 record with him when he steps into the Octagon to face Silva in Las Vegas. As impressive as Weidman’s professional record may be, it pales in comparison to the numbers that Silva has put up since joining the UFC in June 2006.
Silva has run off a record 16 consecutive wins with the promotion. Ten of those victories have come in UFC title defenses. The champ is also on a run of stoppage wins, as Silva’s last four fights have all ended before the conclusion of the second round. The middleweight kingpin earned a KO or TKO in each of those contests. Silva’s most recent win was a first-round TKO over Stephan Bonnar at UFC 153, a fight that Silva took on short notice and fought at the light heavyweight limit.
Weidman will enter the bout against Silva after a fairly long layoff, having last battled in July 2012. After that fight, a second-round knockout victory over the highly ranked Mark Munoz, Weidman underwent surgery to repair damage to his shoulder.
Prior to the Munoz fight, Weidman racked up UFC wins over Demian Maia, Tom Lawlor, Jesse Bongfeldt and AlessioSakara.
A fully healed Weidman will look to end Silva’s title reign when the two meet on July 6. Can Weidman accomplish what so many have tried and failed to do before him? Munoz recently took some time to ponder that very question and offer his opinion on the upcoming title fight.
Had he defeated Vitor Belfort on January 19 in Brazil, it’s very likely that Michael Bisping would have been the next opponent for UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.Alas, the MMA gods had different plans, and Bisping found himself losing t…
Had he defeated VitorBelfort on January 19 in Brazil, it’s very likely that Michael Bisping would have been the next opponent for UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
Alas, the MMA gods had different plans, and Bisping found himself losing to Belfort via TKO in that bout.
Bisping’s loss not only delayed his shot at Silva, but coupled with Alan Belcher’s defeat at the hands of YushinOkami, it opened the door for unbeaten (9-0) Chris Weidman to get a shot at the title. Weidman had been very vocal about obtaining a title shot ever since he knocked out Mark Munoz in July of last year.
Bisping, putting the pain of the loss to Belfort as well as the lost title shot behind him (for now), recently spoke about the upcoming bout between Silva and Weidman. Bisping offered his take on who will walk out of the Octagon as UFC middleweight champion when Silva and Weidman meet in the main event of UFC 162.
UFC 162 will take place on July 6 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV.
Anderson Silva, widely considered the greatest talent in the UFC and MMA, will once again put his middleweight title on the line against breakout-contender Chris Weidman. Silva’s last title defense was against his rival Chael Sonnen, which will h…
Anderson Silva, widely considered the greatest talent in the UFC and MMA, will once again put his middleweight title on the line against breakout-contender Chris Weidman. Silva’s last title defense was against his rival ChaelSonnen, which will have taken place precisely a year before Weidman will step into the cage. He last squared off against Stephan Bonnar in a light heavyweight showdown and put on yet another highlight performance.
Anderson has shown his dominance at both 185 and 205 weight classes, but middleweight is where he reigns supreme.
Chris Weidman has been very vocal about getting his shot, and after putting the pressure on Silva’s camp, the two have finally come to an agreement. Originally Silva showed little interest in facing Weidman, claiming he was not a PPV seller, nor had done enough to deserve a shot. Time will tell if Weidman will pull in the PPV buys that Sonnen or Silva’s past opponents have, but Silva’s fame will already set a standard of monetary success.
Weidman and others have expressed that his style and abilities are a dangerous challenge to Silva, and his confidence in asking for this fight is unwavering. However, all of Silva’s opponents have been confident in pre-fight rituals—and even when walking out to the cage—but when the fight starts, a whole different story unfolds.
Silva has shown his “medusa-effect” on his opponents, and you see many great fighters look outclassed. This may be from nerves, paired with the level of talent from “The Spider” among other things, but whatever the case, Silva has been king of the hill for many years and has shown very little signs of any downslide.
Silva is a smart technical fighter, but so is Weidman.
Weidman is on a terrific streak; he is undefeated in his career, sitting at 9-0 with six of those wins coming before the judge’s verdict. He has shown an excellent wrestling forte, and if there is one area that Silva has shown vulnerability, it has been on the ground. You wouldn’t guess it from looking at his record and his opponents, but he has only been in trouble when he has been put on his back.
Weidman has the wrestling to be a strong presence on the ground, but it will be a matter of if he can even get the fight to the ground in the first place. Silva was dominated like never before in his first meeting with Sonnen, spending the majority of the 24-ish minutes on his back getting pummeled before finally catching Sonnen in a triangle and pulling off one of the greatest comebacks in UFC history.
However, his rematch with Sonnen went completely different. Silva’s work on his takedown defense showed, and knowing Weidman poses a similar threat, he will surely look to tighten up that facet of his game even more.
While wrestling seems to be the best chance at dethroning the Brazilian superstar, Weidman does have great striking as well. It may not be as technical and crisp as others, but he is a well-rounded fighter that is a dangerous opponent for anyone. His last victory over top-contender Mark Munoz showed that he could win definitively over another wrestler and still use his hands to dictate the fight. Weidman’s game plan is anyone’s guess, but he certainly feels comfortable on his feet or on the ground.
Silva will want to go out there and do what he does best, and possibly do so in a manner that will send a statement to the fans and the UFC—that Weidman does not belong in the cage with him.
It won’t necessarily be a matter of trying to embarrass him, but rather trying to outclass him. Silva must be wary to not go into this fight over-confident and take it easy, nor should he want to drag out a fight to make a point. Silva had been widely criticized for some of his previous performances, but since then has been sticking to his highlight-reel ways.
He is looking to cement his legacy and continue his undefeated streak in the UFC, so with an opponent that isn’t as big of a name as Georges St. Pierre or Jon Jones, he may want to put on a unique and dominant performance.
It’s always hard to bet against an undefeated fighter, but in this case they both have been undefeated in the UFC and on long winning-streaks. Someone will take their first loss in years, but it still is a stretch to bet against the champ in this particular case. Silva’s evasiveness, his unorthodox striking and presence, his accuracy and overall durability will cause new challenges for Weidman—the likes of which he has never faced in the UFC.
Then again, most people have never faced the caliber of opponent as Silva, until they actually fight Silva. Weidman has the tools to win this fight, but he may not have the carpenter skills to finish the job.
During a recent interview with Sports Net Canada, UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre took a moment to shit on UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. St. Pierre was called out publicly for months by Silva, who wanted the welterweight champion to come up in weight and fight him in a super fight.
St. Pierre will instead fight Nick Diaz Saturday at UFC 158. Silva will finally fight Chris Weidman later this year. St. Pierre trains regularly in New York City with Phil Nurse and Renzo Gracie boys. Weidman’s Jiu Jitsu lineage goes back to Renzo and GSP calls the #1 middleweight challenger his friend.
And he thinks his relatively unknown friend will smack around Silva with ease.
“I believe he’s going to beat Anderson Silva. I believe it’s a bad match-up for Anderson Silva. Very bad,” he said with a smile. “Not only he’s going to beat, I believe he’s going to beat Anderson Silva. I believe it’s not going to be too long, that fight.”
GSP does leave himself one out, though. He implies that Silva intentionally signed to fight Weidman only now because the challenger will be coming off of major surgery and a long layoff. “Anderson Silva is smart,” Georges says.
“The time to fight [Weidman] is now.”
What do you think, ‘taters? Will GSP be as giddy as Floyd Mayweather was after Manny Pacquiao got knocked out in his last fight if Weidman manages to dethrone Silva? Do you agree that Weidman has a good chance at not just beating Anderson but doing so quickly and with ease?
During a recent interview with Sports Net Canada, UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre took a moment to shit on UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. St. Pierre was called out publicly for months by Silva, who wanted the welterweight champion to come up in weight and fight him in a super fight.
St. Pierre will instead fight Nick Diaz Saturday at UFC 158. Silva will finally fight Chris Weidman later this year. St. Pierre trains regularly in New York City with Phil Nurse and Renzo Gracie boys. Weidman’s Jiu Jitsu lineage goes back to Renzo and GSP calls the #1 middleweight challenger his friend.
And he thinks his relatively unknown friend will smack around Silva with ease.
“I believe he’s going to beat Anderson Silva. I believe it’s a bad match-up for Anderson Silva. Very bad,” he said with a smile. “Not only he’s going to beat, I believe he’s going to beat Anderson Silva. I believe it’s not going to be too long, that fight.”
GSP does leave himself one out, though. He implies that Silva intentionally signed to fight Weidman only now because the challenger will be coming off of major surgery and a long layoff. “Anderson Silva is smart,” Georges says.
“The time to fight [Weidman] is now.”
What do you think, ‘taters? Will GSP be as giddy as Floyd Mayweather was after Manny Pacquiao got knocked out in his last fight if Weidman manages to dethrone Silva? Do you agree that Weidman has a good chance at not just beating Anderson but doing so quickly and with ease?
Now that we have finally learned that Chris Weidman is the next man fighting Anderson Silva for the title, we are left to wonder just how Weidman can succeed where so many others have failed.Make no mistake about it, this is a fight Weidman can win, bu…
Now that we have finally learned that Chris Weidman is the next man fighting Anderson Silva for the title, we are left to wonder just how Weidman can succeed where so many others have failed.
Make no mistake about it, this is a fight Weidman can win, but it won’t be easy.
First off, he has to apply constant pressure to the champion; much like ChaelSonnen did at UFC 117, because trying to figure out how to beat Silva from the outside isn’t going to get it done.
Silva is a rare fighter; a man equally adept at striking offensively as he is countering an opponent who tries to go toe-to-toe with him. So what does Weidman need to do in order to pull off the upset?
There are three possible ways Weidman can get the job done, but each requires total commitment. Many great fighters have stepped into the cage with the champion, only to seem to forget how to ply the skills that got them there in the first place—as if showing up was good enough.
There has never been a champion in the history of the UFC as great as Silva because he dares to be great, so all measures against him must be equal to the task.
First of all, Weidman needs to limit the weapons of the champion as best he can and that means a relentless takedown attack for all five rounds.
The one place where the effectiveness of Silva’s best game—striking—is going to be diminished is on the ground with Silva on his back, and that is where Weidman needs to take this fight as often as possible.
Yes, he may eat some serious strikes on the way in (perhaps even suffering a KO from a well-placed counter-knee) or get some elbows from the clinch, but we know—nearly to a certainty—that he’s going to be in far more danger if he tries to engage Silva in a striking contest for any extended period of time.
If he can get take Silva down repeatedly and keep him down, he can employ the same basic plan ChaelSonnen did, but with greater effect and earn a decision victory that may not be pretty but gives him the title.
Another way Weidman can win is by taking risks and attacking Silva from the top—looking for the stoppage aggressively—whenever he takes the champion down.
This is risky, as it gives Silva room to either pull Weidman into his guard or escape to the feet, but it does allow Weidman a chance to secure a sooner victory via KO/TKO thanks to his heavy-handed ground-and-pound.
No matter what many people may think, Silva can be knocked out just like any other man and Weidman is a very strong fighter who knows how to use that strength on the ground.
One of the main virtues for going after the stoppage instead of trying to grind out a decision victory is that it lessens the amount of time Silva will have to end the bout himself. He’s proven to be the kind of champion that is dangerous in any fight, at any time, and if Weidman could get him out of there, well sooner is better than later.
And lastly, if somehow Silva manages to thwart every takedown attempt, Weidman is going to be forced to stand and exchange, which is a possibility he needs to be ready for.
Should that happen, Weidman still has heavy hands that could land given that Silva has shown a tendency to “clown” about if he feels he has an opponent who must stand with him.
That means when Weidman throws, he can’t be tentative like so many others have been. Everyone else before him seems to see Silva standing still, arms at his sides, as if it is a mirage and thus they throw tentative strikes that lack their full authority.
If Silva does that with Weidman, the challenger must throw with all his might, and throw often.
Very few fighters have gone after Silva with the intent to throw heavy leather for every second of every round. In all of his bouts in the UFC, the champion has not had anyone pressure him like that, probably because of how destructive he looked against Chris Leben in his debut.
But this is a title fight, and if Weidman cannot secure the takedowns, then he should be ready to throw everything that he can at the champion and let the chips fall where they may.
When at all possible, he should cut off the cage—far easier said than done, to be sure—and get inside Silva’s long range and work heavy punches to the body, uppercuts and then hooks.
Yes, he will have to fight like mad to combat Silva’s Thai clinch, but if he wants the title badly enough, he should be ready to expend as much energy as needed to dish out more damage than he takes and take as much damage as he must.
As incredible as Silva is, he is still getting older, day-by-day, and given how infrequently he fights, his defensive timing may slip enough for Weidman to land, especially if the challenger is really ready and has enough gas in the tank to throw over 100 meaningful punches per round.
There is a saying in the South that speaks to the idea that sometimes you fight the fight where you find it and other times you fight it where it finds you.
For Weidman, he must do both and fight like the younger, hungrier man, constantly putting pressure on Silva and never for a second forgetting that showing up is only half the battle.
