Tag: UFC 168

For the first time since 2006, the UFC’s middleweight division has a champion not named Anderson Silva, and the division is much more intriguing as a result. 

Make no mistake: Dominant champions are great for the UFC. No champion has been more dominant than “The Spider,” and he’s one of the company’s biggest draws because of his nearly seven-year title reign. 

But at this point in his career, he no longer needs the belt to be a great draw. He’s already one of the UFC’s most recognizable and exciting fighters, with 14 finishes to his name in the organization. 

Whether he has that UFC title belt around his waist or not, people will tune in to see his fights. 

The same can’t be said for current UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman. Whereas Silva has been building his brand inside the Octagon for seven years, Weidman has only been in the sport since 2009.

To illustrate the difference in familiarity with the UFC fanbase further, Silva has more finishes in the UFC than Weidman even has professional fights (14 to 10). 

For years, the middleweight division has been a bit stale. Because of Silva’s success as the champion, the quest for No. 1-contender status always felt a bit pointless. Fighters like Vitor Belfort, Demian Maia and Yushin Okami all climbed the ladder to earn title shots, but after they all got defeated in one-sided fashion one had to ask, “What’s the point?”

It’s telling that of Silva’s last six opponents to challenge for the middleweight belt prior to his loss to Weidman (Chael Sonnen, Okami, Belfort, Maia, Thales Leites and Patrick Cote) only one (Okami) has remained in the UFC’s middleweight division without at least testing the waters in another division or leaving the UFC altogether. 

The way Silva has taken care of opponents, trying to climb the ladder again seemed trivial. 

However, Weidman‘s emergence as champion makes the climb relevant again. While he’s certainly a great fighter and should be favored over any challengers for his belt, he doesn’t have the same aura of invincibility that Silva worked for years to obtain. 

With a new champion in place, the division all of a sudden goes from having few contenders with the exact recipe to defeat Silva (great wrestling with good striking) to being stocked with interesting contenders to test the new champion. 

If Silva defeats Weidman in a rematch, it’s almost as if the first fight didn’t happen. Barring a trilogy with Weidman, there aren’t many intriguing fights for Silva to take in the division, and we’d once again go back to watching Silva pick off underqualified challengers. 

The best-case scenario for fans would be to see Weidman defeat Silva again, proving that he’s the rightful champion and taking on all comers at 185 while Silva goes on to take fights at whatever weight he chooses. 

This would allow for the middleweight division to be more competitive than it has been since the latter half of Silva’s reign while allowing Silva to put on exciting fights against bigger names in other divisions. 

 

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There are few fighters in the sport of MMA that can relate to Anderson Silva, but Georges St-Pierre is one of them. 

The 170-pound kingpin is one of few fighters whose accomplishments in the Octagon are even comparable to Silva’s. He’s notched 18 victories in the UFC, more than Silva’s 16. His streak eight consecutive title defenses is just two away from tying “The Spider” for the most defenses in UFC history. 

While we can sit and argue where they stand on the pound-for-pound rankings, the point is that St-Pierre’s reign as champion is comparable to Silva’s—which means a lot. 

However, GSP didn’t become the dominant champion without sharing an experience that he and Silva now have in common. Both were TKO’d in shocking fashion by a heavy underdog. 

Before St-Pierre’s current dominance of the title, he was a 13-1 champion coming off of a convincing knockout victory over Matt Hughes, the only man who had ever defeated him. You can’t quite compare that St-Pierre to the pre-Chris Weidman Anderson Silva, but with wins over B.J. Penn, Hughes, Sean Sherk and Frank Trigg, he had done a lot to build his own aura of invincibility. 

Then he fought Matt Serra. 

Sporting a record of just 9-4 and earning his title shot by virtue of a split decision victory over Chris Lytle to win Season 4 of The Ultimate Fighter, the prospect of him getting a shot at the welterweight champion is laughable in retrospect. 

But he shocked the world when he knocked out St-Pierre at the 3:25 mark of the first round. 

It still stands as one of the greatest upsets in UFC history. 

Like a true champion, GSP allowed the loss to humble him and has since gone on a tear that is only equaled by Silva’s middleweight title run. He has since won 11 consecutive bouts, rarely even losing a round. 

However, it took some adjustment’s on St-Pierre’s part. Before the loss to Serra, nine of GSP‘s 13 wins had come by way of either TKO or submission. He was more than willing to show off his dynamic striking to knock opponents out.

After the loss to Serra, he became a much more safe fighter, sacrificing some of his entertainment value for near invincibility. Just three of his 11 wins since the loss to Serra have been finishes, with eight wins coming by decision. 

Now Silva is faced with a similar situation. His aura of invincibility was wiped away by a nicely timed combination from the hands of Weidman. It’s unreasonable to expect Silva to become a super-safe machine like St-Pierre. That will never be his game. 

Silva will always have to force opponents to engage so that he has opening for his precision counter-striking. But the rematch with Weidman will offer him the opportunity to showcase a new sense of focus and urgency. 

We’ll either see Silva adjust his style, humbled by his loss to Weidman and prepared to take back his title for another lengthy reign, or we’ll see that Weidman‘s victory was not just lightning in a bottle. 

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