Anderson Silva Agrees to Defend Belt Against Chris Weidman at UFC 162

He is a strong wrestler with good enough BJJ that he should be able to fight off Anderson's submission attempts and go for his own.

His positional game from the top is very good. He also matches size with Silva.

He is a good matchup stylistically, but I still think Silva beats him even on Weidman's best night at this stage of their careers.

 

Hanging out in silvas guard is not gonna get Weidman anywhere. He may go for submission attempts unlikely he gets them but in doing so means he might just loose those dominant positions of control. Silva then gets back to his feet, bad for Weidman. Of course thats assuming Weidman gets silva down, becuse if he doesnt it wont be much of a fight at all.

Chis probably gets the takedown after repeated attempts but I dont see him even passing Silva's guard. Not a reasonable threat to Andy. Silva shuts him down. Stops Weidman before the championship rounds. Besides that well placed elbow this guy weidman has done nothing spectacular. beating Munoz doent make a fighter special and a close win over Maia he looked like a gatekeeper at best in that fight.

Is he really THAT big?

 

You're kind of glazing over the fact that he fought Maia on only 11 days notice.

And yes, he is a very big MW. He may even have some length on Anderson.

 

I don't think Weidman is ready for this fight but the guys a gamer. Standing he has no chance on paper but it will be interesting to see if he can take Silva down and what he can do with him there. I was just watching Weidman vs Andre Galvao from the 2009 ADCC and he gives the multi-world champion quite the match. Here's the link if anyone is interested:

http://vimeo.com/6921039

 

Yeah it was mentioned in the commentary of the fight. I dont know is that the reason he looked sloppy in his striking? Gassing early and not very effective in his takedowns? Could be. He has a good reason I guess to not look like a world beater in that fight. It just doesnt add much to his dangerous reputation either. I guess I'm slow to be impressed and I simply cant get excited for this fight.

They got him listed between 6' and 6'2"

Thanks for the link Pimp. Weidman looks quite slippery, makes sense that he wasnt scared to jump in Maia's guard so I doubt he will be intimidated by andersons. Although Andersons guard is much different closed guard used a lot more defensively, I wounder what Chris will be able to do in it.

 

As I've said for a while, Weidman appears the perfect style to beat Anderson but he could've done with another top contender for experience, and also to regain sharpness as he's been out for so long.

Anderson will likely stop him at some point. But it will be a very good win regardless.

 

Weidman looks alright. Who else was there anyway?

Spider to make it 12 successful defences and 17 straight :good

 

Not really anybody else thats the problem. But Weidman really doesnt pose a good challenge is all I'm saying.

 

He is the #1 challenger in the MW division but still dont believe he is anywhere near Silva

 

Everyone will build up Weidman before the fight, Anderson will light his ass up like a christmas tree then everyone will play down the win.

 

This.

I dont understand how Weidman is this "perfect style to beat Anderson" when it seems his best chance for victory is a ground control gamplan over 5 rounds. I dont know why this is seen as a good idea against silva when everyone who has tried it has failed with the exception of Azeredo 13 years ago in anderson 3 pro fight. Anderson has improved a lot since then... Henderson x2 Sonenen, newton, sakurai, Horn, (x2 Okami)didnt get it done in fact only Jeremy horn and sakurai made it to the final bell. Its been done before by better more proven fighters. What is special about Weidman?

and Weidman is NOT a dangerous submission guy. His game is submission defense and control not a threat to Silva's title and I'm not even sure he can get Silva to the ground round after round like others could. His striking game is average do we know what his cardio over 5 looks like?

What the hell... it's better than Silva sitting on his hands or fighting an unranked guy at LHW but their is a little too much undeserved hype for this Weidman guy.

Oh yeah and this "Silva is afraid to fight this guy" is getting real old, and seems like a cheap way of hyping potential challengers.

 

And add how weak the division is. They said that after Anderson stopped a guy at LHW that no one has been able to stop.

 

Its only weak because anderson has beaten every top fighter over the last six years. Look what Jones has done in 2 years to what most people considered one of the deepest divisions.

 

I think Silva would probably beat GSP easily at 185 since GSP is a wrestler who uses strength and Silva is big at the weight. Silva vs. Jones would be interesting but I would favour Jones tbh.

 

Jones takedowns are almost unstoppable and he is bigger than Anderson and very agressive with gnp even in full guard. He has submitted top fighters (BJJ blackbelts) and his striking is very good. I would say he is a favorite over Anderson but not by much.

Gsp is too small for Anderson Silva. But if they were the same size I would slightly favor Anderson silva over both GSP and Jones.