At only 28-years-old undefeated New York native Chris Weidman (9-0) will get his shot at immortality on July 6 when he steps into the Octagon with MMA’s reigning pound-for-pound king Anderson “The Spider” Silva (33-4) in the UFC 162 main event in Las Vegas.
There are those who feel Weidman possesses the skills necessary to dethrone the champ. With wrestling equal to or greater than Chael Sonnen‘s, Weidman also possesses a slick submission game and knockout power. On paper, it looks like he could be the man.
But will he be able to put it all together on fight night — in the main event — on Pay-Per-View — against Anderson Silva?
Those who feel Weidman can win this fight think his best chance will be to put Silva on his back. But during an interview with MMA Tonight on Wednesday, Weidman clearly stated his intentions and pretty much laid out his gameplan for Silva — oh, and it involves punches in case you were wondering:
“The thing is, when he’s worried about my takedowns, I will punch him in the face. If you look at Chael Sonnen, he dropped him twice, cause when you’re worried about something else and you don’t see a punch coming, it’s a problem. So the second he thinks I’m doing something, I’m doing the opposite.”
That’s a good point. Chael did drop Anderson with punches! Now that was something no one suspected. Like Sonnen though, Weidman does intend to take him down, but he said there will be some differences from what we saw Sonnen do:
“But once I get him down to the ground I’m going to be relaxed, I’m going to be aggressive. I’m not going to be kinda like Chael, he was punching from every angle, very aggressive, very tense. You’re going to see a more relaxed person, aggressive but more pinpointing shots on top. If there’s room for a nice elbow I’m going to hit it and then looking for a good setup for a submission. But it’s going to be calculated.”
Well, it sounds good. It sounds like a modification of what Sonnen did. After all, Sonnen did kind of layout the blueprint and expose Silva’s biggest weakness. But unlike Silva did against Sonnen, he most likely won’t be able to submit Weidman — he won’t have that luxury. In fact, Weidman could submit Silva. It’s possible and Weidman knows it.
But then again, anything’s possible. After all, it’s a fight.
Who you got?
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Listen to the full MMA Tonight interview with Chris Weidman below: