Things seem to be at the point where every fight for Weidman could
wind up as the former middleweight champion’s last stand. The Long
Islander had quite an amazing rise as a prospect, making his
professional debut in 2009, his UFC debut in 2011 and ending
Anderson
Silva’s dominant title reign in 2013—even with an injury layoff
taking Weidman out of action for about a year. That seemingly set
Weidman up as one of the UFC’s next big stars, but despite his
holding the belt for about two and a half years, he never truly
captured everyone’s imagination. What was shaping up to be a
dominant title defense against Silva ended suddenly when Weidman
checked a kick and shattered the Brazilian’s leg; and Weidman
himself suffered repeated injuries that resulted in some long
layoffs before losing the belt to Luke
Rockhold at the end of 2015. Weidman never really got back in
the groove from there. The sport moved past his game a bit, and
while he did well to try and add some new weapons to his approach,
he still could not get many wins over the finish line against
better athletes, particularly as Weidman’s injuries kept piling up
and leaving him further diminished. Then came his 2021 bout against
Uriah
Hall—one of the cruelest instances of irony in mixed martial
arts history. Matched with perhaps the most prominent of the “next
Anderson Silvas” that popped up over the last decade, Weidman threw
a kick that was checked and broke his leg, echoing the most
infamous fight of the American’s career. Weidman returned two years
and change later against Brad
Tavares in August, and while he looked better than the complete
worst-case scenario, there also was not much cause for optimism
going forward. His toughness and aggression are still there and he
even found some moments of success, but he still suffered another
major leg injury and ate a ton of damage against one of the most
pathologically patient middleweights on the roster.
Silva does not figure to be quite that forgiving, even if the
Brazilian does have plenty of issues of his own. “Blindado” made
his UFC debut in 2021 and was primarily a berserker who looked to
hunt for the knockout and figure out the rest later. While Silva
has tried to develop some patience over the years as he has run
into some losses, he usually just winds up swinging hammers at some
point and finds his most success in those moments. Silva is quite
abysmal on the mat, so Weidman does have a path to victory if he
can score a takedown or two, but there is also nothing to suggest
the former champion can hold up whenever the Brazilian finds his
moments to turn this into a brawl. The pick is Silva via
first-round knockout.
UFC News & Features
