@wild_cat: That is true, but Weidman would’ve won against all three of them regardless of whether or not they were in their prime.
The key to Machida’s greatness is largely owed to his ability to disturb his opponent’s rhythm and lure them into overcommitting on everything by taking an extra step when they throw a strike. He does so by maintaining a long range that limits his opponent’s ability to throw feints and connect with strikes without having to take extra steps to close the long distance. If you’re too far away, your feints become far less effective, so not only does Machida not have to worry about his opponent feinting, he also gives himself extra seconds to get reads on his opponent because they’re always too far to throw anything that’ll connect.
Usually, his opponents would respond to this difficulty with Machida’s range by either taking additional short steps to close the distance or lunging in to close the distance quickly. If the first option is chosen, Machida often just resets his range by retreating or angling away, doing so enough times to frustrate the opponent into diving into his counters. And of course, if the second option of lunging in is chosen, Machida just steps in as his opponent lunges forward, intercepting with a left straight. His entire game is minimalistic, but it worked to great effect because most MMA fighters back then and even now are poor at cutting off their opponent’s angles when pressuring. Chris Weidman on the other hand, is not only a very good cage-cutter, but the only good cage-cutter that Machida has ever faced.
When the two of them fought, Weidman took careful forward steps when pressuring, but stopped Machida from just escaping into open space by cutting off his angles instead of chasing like most of Machida’s opponents had in the past. So, Machida spent most of the fight trying to shake off Weidman’s pressure, occasionally ending up on the fence where Weidman’s physicality was useful. Being in his prime wouldn’t have made a difference to how good pressure and cage-cutting tends to disrupt the strategic efficacy of Machida’s entire game.
Similarly, Anderson Silva also faced problems with his strategic efficacy against Weidman. He’s always had some difficulties dealing with pressure, which is why Chael Sonnen was so successful against him in their first fight. Like Machida (or any fighter really), Silva is great when he’s allowed to fight from his preferred range, which is on the outside where he keeps his hands low to entice his opponent into throwing strikes he can counter, with the added benefit of his hands being low enough to defend takedowns. It worked to great effect because Anderson Silva was a phenomenal fighter, but also because most of the opponents he faced didn’t use feints or double up their punches to disturb Anderson’s defensive movement whenever he’d start rolling with their punches and leaning away at the hips.
But Weidman was very disciplined in their fights. He pressured, feinted (which he’s quite good at) and doubled-up his punches often so Silva couldn’t lean away as easily and counter. And this strategy eventually led to the KO in their first fight. Also, Silva wasn’t so far removed from his prime during the first Weidman fight considering how less than a year prior he had annihilated Stephan Bonnar. In facing Weidman he simply came up against a much bigger and far more skillful version of the fighter who gave him his toughest fight in the UFC – Chael Sonnen. Stylistically, Weidman is just a bad match-up for Anderson Silva.
As far as Vitor Belfort’s concerned, yeah he was as old as ice when they fought, LOL. But I’m not convinced a prime Belfort would’ve won.
Anyway, the point I was making in my previous post about Weidman is that if he changed his strategic approach to fights, he’d probably win more. Because as chinny as he’s become, only Dominick Reyes has truly just destroyed him right from the beginning of the fight. Against everyone else, he was fairly competitive up until he got tired. And once Weidman gets tired, much of his technique and defensive discipline goes out the window. He stops feinting, relies on a static guard, stops moving his head off the centerline, gets lazy with his combinations, stops setting up power shots and shoots for more naked takedowns. He becomes a lot easier to hit, which is why all of his KO/TKO losses (except the Reyes one) came in rounds 3 and 4.
I think he’d benefit a lot from a better strength and conditioning program to improve his cardio, and maybe a new strategic approach so that he doesn’t commit all of his energy from the moment the fight starts and tire in the later rounds. He's similar to Kevin Lee. The only difference being that once Kevin Lee gets tired, he stops scrambling after failed takedowns and becomes a lot easier to choke out.
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