chris weidmans decline

[Apollo33]

it's his gas tank, it's one of the worst and it effectively lost him fight imo.

He arguably won the first round against Rocksalt, Romero and Moose. He gassed so hard after the first.

He's a wrestling based fighter that can't sustain himself while grappling which is weird.

 

[Kung Fu bb]

Any top 5 can beat each other at any given night.
Whittaker
Luke
Souza
Romero
Weidman

 

[BKB92]

His chin took a battering against Rockhold, he's still an elite fighter but he isn't able to get away with taking heavy shots like he used to. When he starts fighting smarter again and improves his striking defence I see a resurgence happening.

 

[knock_you_out]

He hasn't declined, he's just facing elite competition: Rockhold, Yomero, Mousasi. Anyone of those fighters could become the Champion.

 

[Johnsonville]

Didn't he lose a ton of weight? Like got down to almost 185 in camp vs being over 200? Idk if he ballooned back up but I think that was around the rock hold fight

~DaViD~

 

[codfather]

He'd still beat GSP, Bisping, Jacare etc.

 

[HelloJapan]

I blame his Dad.

 

[Bjjpitbull8]

IV ban. He is a large MW and it had a fast and obvious impact on him after the ban. I don't think it's USADA in the sense that many will claim.

 

[DespicablePeep]

If Brasilian:
Its USADA and excuses

If American:
Its age and competition

If its the Chris:
Still my boy and excuses

 

[TheGrouch]

I'm certainly no Weidman fan...can't stand the guy, actually...BUT he is a good fighter, and his "decline" was just elite competition, combined with terrible decisions during fights.

I thought he actually showed a bit of improvement in the Kelvin fight (aside from getting touched on the chin). We wasn't doing that stupid karate stance, or trying to throw crane-kicks lol.

 

[Askafan]

Hummus, pretzels and Himalayan salt

 

[lfd0311]

when you're the champ, everybody starts scouting you a little bit more. It's not like it's a new thing.

 

[ScoopSubMMA]

Maybe USADA, but maybe not. I think it's more that he was just fighting better guys. His rise to the top consisted of 2 wins over Silva, a win over Belfort (Who has been a shell of himself since he was off TRT) and then a very close win over Machida.

His wins over Silva were very strange fights, but i do give him credit for beating him twice. I don't put too much weight on the Belfort win and the Machida win was impressive, but I thought Machida was extremely timid in the fight and still almost came on late and won it.

So then he has to fight 3 monsters in Luke, Yoel and Mousasi.

Chris fan or indifferent: "Great analysis. Spot on."

Chris hater: "Nah, its USADA."

 

[tenniswhiz]

He has won the first round of every single fight, no matter the level of competition.
After losing that initial strength and explosiveness, he struggles.

He can always get the TD in R1, and he hits like a brute in R1.
Not so much after that.

So, that’s something to think about.
He “was winning every moment against Silva”, but really, both 2nd rounds were uneventful until the weird endings.
He “was competitive” with Luke, Yoel, and Moos, because he won the 1st round, but momentum did not favor him at all.

 

[Anomonis]

He's still a beast, capable of being #1 in the division, but I lost a lot of respect for him in the Mousasi fight. He was trying to game it and he got fucked, and he deserved it.

 

[Black Blood]

He was fighting tip-top competition and had some shitty luck one way or another. Three loses in a row sucks but you gotta watch/know the nature of each fight to get an accurate assessment.

 

[tehMoose]

He lost to 3 killers

 

[MuddyFugger]

Most fighters decline when they start talking about their "Legacy" and "nobody is taking this belt from me" bullshit. This list of fighters is big. Fuck your legacy. The only thing you should be concerned about is beating your next opponent.

 

[BoD 2.0]

Another way to put it is this. Weidman got his title shot after beating Munoz. His first fight against Silva was in July 2013.

At that time Rockhold had just lost to Belfort. Jacare had just killed Camozzi and was scheduled to kill Okami. Romero was still relatively unknown. And Mousasi had just had his debut fight in the UFC.

If Weidman had to go through any of those guys to get his shot, he may have never fought Silva. If Rockhold didn't have to fight Belfort before getting to Silva, Weidman may have never been champ at all.


....And he'd probably have ALOT more fans today if he was never the champ. Which is kinda ironic.

 

[Skarsgard]

I think it's a combination of USADA, competition, and his lack of boxing defense.