Some detractors have labelled Chris Weidman as “overhyped” and “just another wrestler.” This is simply untrue. Carefully analyzing all five of his UFC fights reveals multiple reasons why his skill set is broader than that. For start…
Some detractors have labelled Chris Weidman as “overhyped” and “just another wrestler.” This is simply untrue. Carefully analyzing all five of his UFC fights reveals multiple reasons why his skill set is broader than that.
For starters, Weidman has good defensive habits. All of his UFC fights show a good ability to cover up against punches and stay relaxed after being tagged. This is better than the more common alternative. Many fighters retreat in a panicked scramble after being tagged. This often leads to their opponent trapping them against the fence and finishing them off.
Contrary to what the critics maintain, Weidman has a personalized brand of wrestling that is actually quite different from what is typically seen in mixed martial arts. Against Mark Munoz, his takedowns started out with attacking one leg before switching to both. Against Jesse Bongfeldt, he used an unusual throw from the body lock.
A typical wrestler would stick to only the standard double leg. This unexpected style might explain how he managed to put on a one-sided clinic against a wrestler of Munoz’s credentials. Two other features of Weidman’s wrestling factored into his success over Munoz. He was willing to deliberately let go of some holds, even when he wasn’t in danger of losing dominant position, to go for other options.
His top control seamlessly blended wrestling with the threat of jiu-jitsu chokes. In short, he is much more than the generic wrestler who just tries to keep his weight on his opponent, maintain the same position and not pressure too much with submissions.
In addition, Weidman’s skill set includes good pacing. His takedowns against Munoz occurred at the beginning of each round.
With the exception of the Demian Maia fight, where he got a few takedowns but wasn’t quite as aggressive as he usually is, he generally engages very actively instead of pacing back-and-forth tentatively and trading jabs. This might not seem like much but it’s actually quite important.
Attacking right off the bat is one reason why Chael Sonnen was so effective against Anderson Silva. Engaging actively, given that it isn’t a reckless bum rush (which isn’t a problem with Weidman), is usually safer than being hesitant.
All too often, neither fighter wants to close the distance. Both men spend entire rounds throwing punches that aren’t really close to landing. Eventually, one fighter has a lapse of concentration and gets knocked out when his opponent unexpectedly rushes him.
Lastly, we have no idea what Weidman’s full potential is. He had bone spurs in his elbows for the past two years. How good will he be now that he’s received surgery? He was a late replacement for injured fighters in two of his five UFC fights.
How good would he have been if he had enjoyed a proper training camp instead of less than two weeks to prepare? It’s probably not a coincidence that those two happen to be his only UFC fights that have gone to decision.
He performed well at the 2009 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship after only one year of formal jiu-jitsu training. His sense of distance also improved dramatically in one year. He went from letting himself be in range for a big head kick from Bongfeldt to landing a perfectly timed elbow on Munoz.
He’s clearly a very fast learner. What is he going to surprise us with in his next outing? Given that his reach rivals Silva’s, I’m going to guess that he’s been working on his boxing.
We suppose its possible that Weidman’s elbow surgery is unrelated to sticking it to Munoz. MMA Fighting has the report. “[Weidman] underwent surgery at the Sanford Surgical Tower on his left elbow to clean out bone chips that had developed over time.”
According to the report, Weidman had been dealing with elbow issues for over two years.
(I guess we could caption this, but wrestling has a way of sometimes looking funny enough on its own.)
We suppose its possible that Weidman’s elbow surgery is unrelated to sticking it to Munoz. MMA Fighting has the report. “[Weidman] underwent surgery at the Sanford Surgical Tower on his left elbow to clean out bone chips that had developed over time.”
According to the report, Weidman had been dealing with elbow issues for over two years. With a few months before he’s scheduled to fight Tim Boetsch, Weidman reportedly felt this was a good time to get his ‘bow fixed up. Hopefully his surgery and recovery go better than Munoz’.
“According to Weidman’s doctors, he will be back to full strength in three-to-six weeks. Weidman expects to return to his home in Long Island, N.Y., in a two days, and he will be able to resume cardio training next week,”MMA Fighting reported.
Side note, ‘taters – we are now taking bets on just how many fights Weidman will have to win before he gets the title shot he already deserves. We’ll call it the Okami over-under.
You’ve gotta feel for Mark Munoz. In the past year, the dude has suffered not only one of the most disgusting elbow injuries on record (see above), but one of the most brutal, not to mention late stoppages of the year at the hands and elbows of Chris Weidman (see below). And he did the latter while rocking one of the goofiest haircuts in MMA history.
And just when you thought that Munoz might be headed down the path of recovery and redemption, it appears that he could be out of action for an entire year to deal with a foot injury he suffered in preparation for the ass kicking he would receive courtesy of Weidman.
Talk about adding injury to insult.
Full story after the jump.
(Who ordered the mahi mahi?)
You’ve gotta feel for Mark Munoz. In the past year, the dude has suffered not only one of the most disgusting elbow injuries on record (see above), but one of the most brutal, not to mention late stoppages of the year at the hands and elbows of Chris Weidman (see below). And he did the latter while rocking one of the goofiest haircuts in MMA history.
And just when you thought that Munoz might be headed down the path of recovery and redemption, it appears that he could be out of action for an entire year to deal with a foot injury he suffered in preparation for the ass kicking he would receive courtesy of Weidman.
Talk about adding injury to insult.
Munoz revealed what little details he had regarding the injury to fighthubtv.com.
I hurt my foot training for the Weidman fight; I was training with Jason (Miller) inside the cage and my foot got caught. I am not sure if it is broken. I will be getting an official MRI tomorrow and I will know. I just hope they do not have to break it in order for it to heal properly as it has somewhat started to heal.
And just in case Munoz wasn’t feeling shitty enough, it turns out that he had to battle a hell of a staph infection following his loss to Weidman, one that spread from his knee to his forehead. Oh yeah, and that horrifying elbow injury is still not healed.
On staph: “I went to the doctor and he took a look at it. He gave me a weird look and brought out a needle and I felt stuff coming out. I am just glad I took care of it early.”
On his elbow: “When he (Weidman) was on top of me trying to get the guillotine I could feel that I did not have full motion in my elbow.”
So there you have it. Every waking moment in the life of Mark Munoz is nothing more than a Sisyphean struggle to overcome injuries that he will be forced to deal all over again once he reaches the figurative mountain top. With each breath comes agony. Life is pain. Life is only pain.
*throws on The Cure and closes the curtains*
Happy Friday, you pampered, privileged conformists.
(Stare at the space directly between them, and slowly move toward your screen. If you do it correctly, you will eventually see the face of Phil Baroni.)
Now that Anderson Silva is “vacationing” until a big fight comes along, Chris Weidman‘s hard-earned #1 middleweight contender spot means jack shit. That’s reality, and there’s nothing Chris can do but exist within it, you know? And so, the undefeated Serra-Longo product will return to the Octagon against another contender, with the hope that he doesn’t get bumped down the ladder.
(Stare at the space directly between them, and slowly move toward your screen. If you do it correctly, you will eventually see the face of Phil Baroni.)
Now that Anderson Silva is “vacationing” until a big fight comes along, Chris Weidman‘s hard-earned #1 middleweight contender spot means jack shit. That’s reality, and there’s nothing Chris can do but exist within it, you know? And so, the undefeated Serra-Longo product will return to the Octagon against another contender, with the hope that he doesn’t get bumped down the ladder.
With the champ unavailable and other top middleweights already booked, on the mend, or suddenly fighting at light-heavyweight, a matchup between Weidman and Boetsch is as logical as any other. And while it seems that Boetsch doesn’t have much of a chance here, we said that about the Barbarian’s last two fights too, so who knows.
MMA sponsorship talk seems to be all the rage these days. Fans are beginning to wonder about the business side of MMA and what a fighter can actually make after every fight. With new companies starting up almost every day, it seems like everyone is loo…
MMA sponsorship talk seems to be all the rage these days. Fans are beginning to wonder about the business side of MMA and what a fighter can actually make after every fight. With new companies starting up almost every day, it seems like everyone is looking for a piece of that proverbial MMA fat cash.
While in San Diego, I had the opportunity to speak with the head of one of the most recognizable brands. It was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up as I’ve been interested in learning more about the company for a couple of years now.
With a breakfast burrito slowly digesting, I drove to the Bad Boy offices and sat down to speak with CEO Robin Offner.
The conversation got off to a bit of a slow start. I didn’t want to jump in and show off all my knowledge of the brand and scare him off. Looking back, I doubt he would have flinched. But we discussed the humble beginnings of the brand and how it got started.
“We acquired the brand in 1991 but we started working with the brand in ’88. The way we got into the business was when that ‘surf shore’ craze happened. We had some guys we grew up with who were great marketers and great idea guys. They started a company called Life’s A Beach. Bad Boy was originally a subline under Life’s A Beach,” CEO Robin Offner explained to me. “In ’91 we went our separate ways and we acquired the brand from them and they went off with their offshoot brand called No Fear.”
The brand would get ahead of the MMA boom by connecting with a Brazilian company that had connections to the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community. Whereas MMA only became popular in the United States with the success of the UFC, combat sports had been thriving in Brazil with both Jiu Jitsu competition and Vale Tudo fights.
“We were one of the first brands that became very involved in sponsoring and supporting athletes. It wasn’t just giving them money. It’s helping them in all aspects of their lives and really bringing them into the Bad Boy family.”
Offner would explain, “Where we were formerly a manufacturer, we transitioned to a licensing model, which is what we are now our first licensee was a Brazilian company and we signed that license in 1992. They became the great idea people of the brand. They still are. They got into sponsoring Jiu Jitsu with Rickson Gracie in 1993.”
This connection would lead to Bad Boy sponsoring some very prominent members of the Jiu Jitsu community including Wallid Ismael and Vitor Belfort. It also allowed the company to build up a relationship with Brazilian fighters which ultimately created a brand identity.
At this point in the conversation, Offner changed the subject from MMA history to their involvement in other sports. I expected him to discuss surfing or skateboarding or maybe even football, I mean they did just sign DeMarco Murray. Instead, he brings up the 1994 baseball strike.
“What we did in 1994 when the baseball players went on strike, we made t-shirts that said ‘Bad Boy on Strike’ and we had the Bad Boy logo on it and we sent that t-shirt to every single baseball player. So when they went on strike that first morning, they all put on that t-shirt and it was on the cover of USA Today.”
It’s an interesting story that sets the tone for the rest of the interview.
His openness discussing their business model and what they look for when signing fighters emboldens me to ask what they will do in a world without Demian Maia and Shogun Rua—the two elder statesmen of the roster.
Without missing a beat, Offner explains that over a year and a half ago they came up with a strategy to identify and sign one American, one European, and one Brazilian fighter. The criteria were that they had to be young up and coming fighters with long-term viability.
Those fighters would end up being Chris Weidman, Alex Gustafsson, and Erick Silva. The way he speaks about them is almost like a father being proud of his children. It becomes very apparent that Offner really does view the brand as a family.
It sounds a cliché and if I wasn’t speaking with the man himself, I’d almost believe he was paying me lip service. However, Offner explained how the brand landed both Alex Gustafsson and Chris Weidman. Both cases to me seemed to be a bit non-traditional.
“When we were going to sponsor Chris and we had been talking, he flew out here and spent some time with us. We clicked. We felt good about him. We didn’t have a signed contract with him and we had been negotiating with his former manager. So it went back and forth but we had an understanding that we would have a long term deal.”
He added, “So then his new manager called me up and said ‘I wanna pick it up where you left off’. I was in Brazil and was really busy and I got a call from him saying that (Chris) was on the Fox card against Demian. His manager tells me ‘he’s fighting in 10 days and we don’t have a deal done’. Despite the fact that Chris was getting huge offers, he did the fight with us without a contract, without squeezing an extra nickel out of us.”
For a company to go into a major event without a contract shows trust in the fighters and managers that they deal with on a day to day basis. And as unbelievable as the signing of Chris Weidman sounded, Offner’s signing of Gustafsson was incredibly similar.
“We have a great relationship with a gym here in San Diego called Alliance and Eric Del Fierro. If one of his fighters has an issue or they want legal advice or they just want life advice, he’ll bring them to me and I’ll talk to them. Or if they have a legal question or something like that. We just have a really great relationship.”
He continued, “So Eric called me and said, ‘Robin, I want you to sponsor this kid named Alex Gustafsson.’ And I said ‘Eric, I don’t know him. I don’t sponsor people I don’t know.’ Eric said, ‘he’s fighting in five days and I need you to trust me.’ He’s never said that to me before. I said, ‘alright, I can’t give him a lot of money but if he does well and ends up on TV we’ll sit down and explore a contract.’ So he comes in and he’s the greatest kid in the world. He’s one of those special nice and humble people.”
The story continued that Offner was so impressed with Gustafsson as a person that they agreed to terms almost immediately. It’s how they do business. If you are a good person, they are willing to look past wins and losses.
With the interview winding down, I wanted to really get one last great story out of Offner. When given the opportunity to speak with the head of such a big company, you have to use your time wisely so I wanted to know what he thought about the UFC sponsorship tax.
The tax caught many in MMA off guard and angered many executives in the process. Here was a massive company asking for the little guy to pay for the opportunity to sponsor fighters. Offner, however, holds no ill will towards Zuffa. In fact, it almost seemed like he agreed with the policy.
“I heard companies complain about that and I think that’s crazy. Maybe this is one of the reason we get along well but the Fertittas and Dana White put up tens of millions of dollars creating this platform that we get to slide in on. We get to jump on their backs and ride in their wagon for free. That’s not fair for them though it’s great for us. The amount of money that they want to charge for a tax is minimal compared to what we get out of it.”
“The UFC created this for us and anyone who will be critical of the UFC for wanting to charge a fee is a taker and is crazy. We owe it to them. Every one of these brands wouldn’t be where they are without the UFC. These other newer brands wouldn’t be anything without the UFC. We all owe the UFC. We should recognize and acknowledge that.”
With the interview over I walked away knowing that I was given a rare opportunity to learn a bit more about the business side of MMA. Robin constantly brought up the Bad Boy family and after returning back to my hotel, I felt like I was a part of that, if only for that one day.
Among the top contenders in the middleweight division are Alan Belcher and Chris Weidman. Though it is not certain who their next opponents are and where they will fight, a hypothetical matchup between the two is quite enticing.Both men are vastly diff…
Among the top contenders in the middleweight division are Alan Belcher and Chris Weidman. Though it is not certain who their next opponents are and where they will fight, a hypothetical matchup between the two is quite enticing.
Both men are vastly different. Belcher is a long-time veteran of the sport just bursting into the title picture. Weidman is young gun, bursting into the title picture in the early part of his career.
Here is a head-to-toe breakdown of the two, should they ever meet.
Some detractors have labelled Chris Weidman as “overhyped” and “just another wrestler.” This is simply untrue. Carefully analyzing all five of his UFC fights reveals multiple reasons why his skill set is broader than that.
