Huge pressure on Chris. What's next for him if Kelvin KO him? Would you say he´s overrated or done?

1. USADA
2. Anyone who has very good TDD is trouble for Weidman becuase he is slow/rudimentary on the feet
 
I'm still a Chris Weidman fan and just think he's caught a couple of tough breaks. He looked good against both Yoel Romero and Gegard Mousasi before getting caught with those knees. I actually think he can beat Kelvin Gastelum and get back on track.
 
It's really hard to say if Chris is overrated, or even on a downward skill in terms of health and fighting/athletic abilities even with a loss vs Kelvin here.

Lets look at the performances, vs Rockhold, Chris was winning the first two rounds but began to fade going into the 3rd then threw a terrible excuse for a spinning hook kick and got punished badly, survived but was too damaged and gassed and Rockhold continued to pummel him for a TKO win in the 4th. Chris looked elite in this fight, he gassed a bit but put on a high pace, was eating big kicks and made a fatal error...these things happen.

Chris vs Romero, Chris comes out in round 1 and gives Yoel a lot of looks, is active, scores a couple short lived takedowns and wins round 1. Round 2 Romero got the back body lock and was able to man handle Chris a bit, Romero won round 2. Round 3, Chris has been shooting in or attempting to shoot in on Yoel's back leg all night, Yoel finally timed a counter knee and killed the Chris.

Chris vs Mousasi, round 1 Mousasi comes out pressuring Weidman and setting a high pace, Moose gets taken down several times but springs back up continuing to pressure. Chris wins round 1, round 2 Chris is fading a little and Mousasi is continuing to turn on the pressure (Mousasi said the gameplan was to break weidman with a pace he couldn't match) Mousasi begins to catch Weidman and the tables seem to be changing...then the weird knee incident happens and it's a controversial TKO win for Mousasi.


What can we say about Romero, Mousasi and Rockhold? All easily top 5 Middleweights, realistically Chris could lose to all 3 of these guys in his prime, Chris could lose to all 3 of these guys and still be the 5th or 6th best Middleweight in the world. But....Chris is coming off 3 consecutive TKO/KO loses, after the Romero fight he really needed to take a step back and build himself back up again not contiuing to take top 5 fights. Kelvin is, in my opinion as bad a matchup for Chris as any of these 3 men are, Kelvin's arguably a top 5, easily top 10 MW with tons of potential, super young, a surging star in the making...this fight makes no sense, if Weidman loses he was supposed to lose and if Weidman wins this fight still should have never happened for the sake of Weidman's career. I don't know who to blame, who's trying to ruin Weidman's career? His management? the UFC? Ray Longo and his coaches/gym? Is it Chris himself that's truly this dense? The guy needs to be fighting Sam Alvey or Elias Theodorou, not young monsters like Gastelum...get a couple wins and then start climbing your way back into the title picture...the reality we may be seeing the murder of Weidman's career.
Great post.

I think before his losing streak, Weidman was relying on his strength and grappling a lot, but now he´s facing strong athletes with high level grappling like Luke, Romero and Mousasi.... also in Weidman´s last fights he fought 2 guys with better striking than him in Luke and Mousasi, and fought Romero a monster that knows how to keep his distance until he explodes and destroys you, which he did. So yeah, it doesn´t necessarily mean Weidman is done, but for his own sake, he needs to take a step back.
 
I dont think he's overrated, but the rockhold fight and the iv ban might have ruined him.

He should have moved to 170 after that
 
It really sucks for Chris, I don't think he have declined but he had some bad luck, his fight with Luke was kinda close, also he was 1-1 with both Yoel and Mousasi, but after those brutal losses some psychological issues might affect him now ad Kelvin is no joke, I feel he should beat him but you never know, also he had taken a lot of damaged in his losses, I never liked him when he was champ but War Weidman
 
I can't believe they didn't give him a tune-up fight after the Romero loss, but after the Mousasi loss to STILL insist on giving him another massive challenge is really inexcusable for his team to agree to. There's really not much more upside to Weidman beating Gastelum than there is beating a Dave Branch or Brad Tavares -- you get the W and get comfortable in the cage again, without the massive risk a guy like Kelvin poses. High risk medium reward vs. low risk very slightly lower medium reward.
 
I wouldn't say he's overrated but given all the damage he's taken I don't think it'd be a terrible idea for him to call it a career. He's fighting nothing but killers and it's not like he's getting outclassed. My biggest concern is he appears to be getting overpowered in the grappling now which never used to happen. Rockhold and Romero are one thing because they're beasts, but Mousasi usually gets ragdolled by top level wrestlers and Weidman could do absolutely nothing. That was definitely concerning.
 
imo he is not overrated, he was unlucky to face the best fighters in a row.
Kelvin is also one of them who can beat him.

who else would like to fight Luke , Yoel , Mousasi and Kelvin in a row ?
others are not even defending !!!
 
imo he is not overrated, he was unlucky to face the best fighters in a row.
Kelvin is also one of them who can beat him.

who else would like to fight Luke , Yoel , Mousasi and Kelvin in a row ?
others are not even defending !!!
He did fight a murderer's row. But then again, that's to be expected from a young former champion in his prime.
Luckily for us fans he's not like Bisping and looking for easy fights against 50 year olds or retired welterweights.
 
At this point his coaches and father are doing him harm by letting him fight so quickly after so many knockouts.

To be fair, he had almost a year off after the rockhold fight. After romero he came back 5 months after. Maybe he should have taken more time off after romero as that was a fucking brutal knee.
 
i was never impressed by him. he was unproven as a champion. a result of timing and bad matchmaking. then he fought higher caliber opponents. he should definitely take a step down in competition.
 
He isn't getting rolled by these guys. Most of his fights I could see easily going the other way.

I wish he was fighting someone outside the top-15 though. He needs an easy win, not a war.
 
depends on how it goes. I'd rather see a step-down in comp than a move to 205. Bigger opponents as a wrestler. MW has such good potential fights it'd be a bummer if he's out of those, rematches included.
 
He was stupid against rockhold and I actually though he was starting to takeover until he tried that kick. Both men were gassing hard. Against romero he was holding his own but one to many takedowns and he was timed to perfection. I will see how his next fight goes.
 
He did fight a murderer's row. But then again, that's to be expected from a young former champion in his prime.
Luckily for us fans he's not like Bisping and looking for easy fights against 50 year olds or retired welterweights.
yes,that time he was even asking to fight Jones.
I dont like him but respect him a lot
 
If he beats kelvin then set him up against tim boetsch. If he loses then set him up w the dad-guy that Brunson just ko'd. The problem w weidman is that people say that he lost because of a kick, or he was winning the first rd, or the reason he is losing is because of usada; he got out-skilled and out-fought by men who are simply better fighters than him. He was never on his way to winning any of those fights. So fans are in denial of this despite the pattern of him not just losing, but losing in devastatingly bad ways. In a row. Every time.
 
It's no shame loosing to Kelvin..

And he will lose.
 
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