Did Chris Weidman actually ever beat anyone in their prime as a champion?

[Franklin U.]

Machida was certainly at the tail end of prime but prime nonetheless.......and Anderson too (tail end...perfect timing)...

Romero and Mousasi still whip him but Luke with that defense ,chin and the torture to get down to 185- weidman could definitely beat Luke

 

[AssassinFacedBaby]

So then do you concede Anderson was losing in his prime at age 28 and 29 to cans like Takase and Chonan?

You cannot have it both ways and use simply age to suggest he was out and then not use age to say he was in his prime.

So what are we saying that he had a 5 year prime window and that is it. Basically all his key wins right up to the last one were in his prime and it suddenly stopped.



To me Anderson's Prime is a combination of different things. He was always a great striker on the feet but he was vulnerable to td's and a good sub game. After the Lutter debacle (almost losing to a drained and weakened Lutter who could not make weight for a title shot) it was clear Anderson dedicated himself to grappling defense with the Nog bro's and most importantly he started to gain some good mass each and every year after that as he began to look more like a LHW than a MW.

This gave Anderson a late prime which started around when he was 32 and was still going (albeit on the downside) when Weidman KHTFO.

People just don’t want to believe their Hero got knocked the fuck out by an average at best Middleweight

 

[moreorless87]

The issue for me is more that Weidman was really well suited for beating Anderson and Lyoto. Both counter fighters who hated being on their backs, his style of slowly stalking them not giving up any easy counter openings worked very well.

Against someone like Rockhold or Mousasi who wasn't afraid to be taken down and was much more active standing rather than just looking for counters he was simply not nearly so effective.

 

[MCS]

No. But the Luke fight showed where he's at, as Luke was in his prime and they went back and forth until the lazy as hell spin. Close to top tier, beat some old greats, overpowered a undersized Gastelum.

 

[Dozer .]

Biggest Anderoid dickrider on Sherdog can’t handle the truth. What a surprise Toner lol

Anderson is the GOAT

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

Silva and Machida weren't considered "old" until he beat them.

I considered them old. Out of everybody in the Goat Discussion Silva is the oldest and was the oldest Champion. He didn't fight in the UFC until he was already 31 and still managed to rack up 10 straight title defenses. Aldo Was in his 20's when He was dominant, GSP retired in his early 30's, Jones was in his 20's when he dominated, Fedor was 33 when he went on his losing streak etc.. Until he fought Weidman most his recent opponents were similar in age to him.

 

[rakeleaves]

It's also funny when people say guys that look like this:

Or Vitor and his vastly higher testosterone level compared to Weidman, are old and decrepit.
Keep that narrative flowing boys.

You do know that muscularity has little to do with the reaction time of an aged fighter right?

 

[gono btw]

A fighters 'Fighting Prime' does not generally correlate always with their 'Physical Prime'.


If it does then Anderson was losing a lot of fights to lower end fighters in his Prime as man's physical prime is around 25 years old. Anderson was losing to Takase at 28 and Chonan at 29 years old.

So you cannot have it both way Android fans.

A fighters 'Fighting Prime' is when his mental game and physical game meet at a point of their best execution.

I would peg the up slope of Anderson's physical prime in around 2008 after that sloppy fight with Lutter where if Lutter did not have such a horrid weight cut and gas out he likely would have finished Anderson. I think Anderson's complete game came together much better after that. And I think Weidman knocked Anderson out of the down slope of his 6 year prime run (which is not a long time) with that devastating KO, which happens.

A prime is not only about age, physical state, or how many fights u had (all sports combined)..

It can be a mental thing, like Frank said after the Cung Le fight, when he said that he no longer had the mental discipline to follow a gameplan.

A prime is also not about winning or losing. U can still be winning and no longer be in your prime: this is called fight IQ & experience, mental warfare too (see the B-Hop case).

Now a physical prime, back in the days (now with so many sophisticated PEDs...), would go up to 34 yrs old maxi.

What´s happening in some UFC divisions is obviously an anomaly.

The way I see it, Spider in Pride was quite an anomaly: fighting @ WW, obviously in his physical prime, some would argue not in his technical prime (which is a reach, since he already had arguably the best ground game at Chuteboxe according to the Pride commentators [the truth is...Assuerio Silva was perhaps a lil bit tighter]).

The Chonan & Takase losses are legit, no fluke, even in his technical prime he could have lost these 2 fights since the 2 techniques were beautifully executed by 2 underrated fighters.

 

[moreorless87]

Anderson's ground game was NOT better than Shogun's, not even close.

 

[mmacasualviewer]

Mousasi & Yoel definitely did not beat prime fighters. Perhaps Weidman did.

 

[Sirwastealot]

It's also funny when people say guys that look like this:

Or Vitor and his vastly higher testosterone level compared to Weidman, are old and decrepit.
Keep that narrative flowing boys.

I don't know about Machida or silva 1, you could argue they were in their primes but not at their peak. Vitor definitely was not in his prime when he fought weidman. From what i remember he looked pretty bad in that fight except for a few flurries.

Even so those are 3 solid wins, and beating that version of silva is a great win any way you look at it. That has to be the most discredit win in the history of the sport. Weidman deserves a lot of credit for dethroning silva at that time.

 

[chardog]

If I had to bet, I'd say that you're just a butthurt Silva fan and not curious about anything about the Chris.

chris is a can and wont be remembered, still your boy though

 

[MikeMcMann]

The silver that beat Leben had a mediocre ground game & wrestling which I’m sure Weidman would’ve exposed

He also did not have the mass that he clearly started to gain and you can see post the Lutter fight. His body started more and more to be fit for LHW and at his biggest he was saying in interviews how it was a better fit for him fighting at LHW than MW as he did not have to make the big weight cuts. You could see the change very well in his skull and facial features which really changed.

He really put the focus on gaining some mass to reduce his grappling weakness. That and his training with the Nog's.

 

[runnpray]

I'm just curious because Anderson Silva was gettinng old, so was Lyoto, definitely post-TRT Vitor...

Discuss.

The Chris bigger paper champ than The Count.

 

[3sumrock]

Anderson is the GOAT

He is the goat at destroying and clowning flat footed one dimensional fighter.

 

[cade187]

So then do you concede Anderson was losing in his prime at age 28 and 29 to cans like Takase and Chonan?

You cannot have it both ways and use simply age to suggest he was out and then not use age to say he was in his prime.

So what are we saying that he had a 5 year prime window and that is it. Basically all his key wins right up to the last one were in his prime and it suddenly stopped.



To me Anderson's Prime is a combination of different things. He was always a great striker on the feet but he was vulnerable to td's and a good sub game. After the Lutter debacle (almost losing to a drained and weakened Lutter who could not make weight for a title shot) it was clear Anderson dedicated himself to grappling defense with the Nog bro's and most importantly he started to gain some good mass each and every year after that as he began to look more like a LHW than a MW.

This gave Anderson a late prime which started around when he was 32 and was still going (albeit on the downside) when Weidman KHTFO.

You seem more hung up on the numbers. The physical evidence was obvious to anyone who isn't a blind hater. He was much slower than when his streak began at the time of the Weidman fight, and for multiple fights leading up to that point. Silva's striking was based on speed, timing, and reflexes/head movement. His game had changed to clowning/baiting his opponents to try to get them to make a mistake, so he could land his counter strikes, because his reflexes were slowing down. The evidence is right there in all of his fights; it's pretty clear.

 

[Dozer .]

He is the goat

I’m glad we finally agree on something!

 

[fightfan84]

Angry Anderson fan detected *beep* *bop*

nope, just because I point out an athlete isn't in his prime at 38 doesn't make me angry,
Retarded mma fan detected not understanding that tho lol

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

It's also funny when people say guys that look like this:

Or Vitor and his vastly higher testosterone level compared to Weidman, are old and decrepit.
Keep that narrative flowing boys.

Vitor was in terrible shape compared to whathat he was when he was wrecking people 2 years earlier.

 

[fightfan84]

So then do you concede Anderson was losing in his prime at age 28 and 29 to cans like Takase and Chonan?

You cannot have it both ways and use simply age to suggest he was out and then not use age to say he was in his prime.

So what are we saying that he had a 5 year prime window and that is it. Basically all his key wins right up to the last one were in his prime and it suddenly stopped.



To me Anderson's Prime is a combination of different things. He was always a great striker on the feet but he was vulnerable to td's and a good sub game. After the Lutter debacle (almost losing to a drained and weakened Lutter who could not make weight for a title shot) it was clear Anderson dedicated himself to grappling defense with the Nog bro's and most importantly he started to gain some good mass each and every year after that as he began to look more like a LHW than a MW.

This gave Anderson a late prime which started around when he was 32 and was still going (albeit on the downside) when Weidman KHTFO.

what I'm saying is a 38 year old man isn't in his athletic prime