Alright, there's a lot of nonsense talk about Weidman's knockout of Silva so I'm gonna do a little explaining of why Weidman deserves a LOT more credit than he's getting from most people. First thing's first, Silva was clowning because Weidman wasn't giving him anything to work with. Silva doesn't look spectacular striking unless he gets opponents to overcommit in the standup or otherwise get out of position. This is common knowledge. What Weidman did was take him down immediately and show that he could land some serious shots on the ground and refused to be controlled in Silva's body triangle in closed guard. When they got up, Chris stayed in range and tracked Silva. He stayed in his face and gave him no openings. As a result, Anderson had to taunt more and more and even attack first to try to get Weidman coming at him. When Weidman did attack, it was with one or two shots that left very little openings and were impossible to time because he had no rhythm. However, Weidman was able to time Silva's footwork.
For example, in this gif, Weidman connects with a right hand. But notice how Anderson moves when it happens. Silva is very fond of pivoting to move his head and move backwards, he rarely actually moves straight back. He mostly steps his lead foot back as he does so, switching stances because it allows him to cover more distance. Weidman sees Silva baiting him with his hands on his hips. Notice that Silva's right foot is forward, meaning he will likely pivot on his left foot, moving to his own left (Weidman's right). Thus, Weidman comes forward and when he throws his right hand, he steps his right foot off to the side to cut Silva off and land the shot while also switching stances. This shows great anticipation, as it allows him to both land the shot AND angle off to his left immediately after landing. That's smart stuff.
This second gif shows the type of pressure I'm talking about. Weidman stays right in front of Silva and taunts back when Silva taunts him. When Silva attacks, he hops back a little to avoid taking damage then immediately gets back in front of Silva. Notice how Weidman is actually also baiting Silva by having his weight forward, so he can pull it back as soon as Silva attacks. He even does this by jabbing and leaning forward so that he can pull away from Silva's counter left straight in that gif.
Eventually, Weidman saw an opening left by Silva that he believed he could really exploit and even though it took 4 punches, he did it.
The short version is Weidman stayed in Silva's face while leaving him no openings, Silva did everything he could to bait Weidman into reaching, but Weidman covered enough ground and disrupted his movement to land the knockout. Here's the gif:
Two things happen immediately in that gif: 1. Weidman pivots to his left with a long left hook to take the picture perfect example of an inside angle and gets Silva fully square. 2. As this happens, Silva steps his left foot to the left and squats a little, making himself even more square and making himself less mobile.
At this point, I don't think anyone in the world could resist trying to punch Silva. His back is near the cage, he's completely square, his hands are down (they don't look threatening) and his head looks like it's RIGHT THERE (though it's really just out of range). Weidman decides to go for it and truly commits to attacking with strikes for the first time in the fight.
He throws a jab and a hard cross right behind it that should have taken out anyone in mma who isn't Silva, but of course Silva was planning to move his head the whole time and has the skill to do it with a pivot. As the right misses, Silva's footwork has actually put him at an inside angle with Weidman in a pretty bad position. So everyone saying his footwork was off should really watch it at work in this gif. It's still beautiful. But, notice how close Weidman came to connecting because of how far forward he moved. This puts Silva in a range where he won't be able to effectively counter with straight punches (and he isn't one to counter with hooks, though he probably could have landed a very clean right hook if he was comfortable with it) and explains why he wasn't trying to counter; he wasn't in position to do it the way he likes so he wanted to move more and get a better opening.
Weidman, in a pretty awful position, throws an improvised backhand that ended up being the key to the fight. Now a bunch of people read that great Jack Slack article (that article might even be called prophetic haha) and assumed Weidman must have been planning this his whole camp. Personally, I'm not sure. He DEFINITELY didn't plan to throw it when he started. Whether or not he trained it as a backup measure for similar situations is up for debate. I like to think that he at least understood its function when he threw it. From his knockout of Munoz and his patience in this fight, the one word I would use to describe Weidman's standup is intelligent. Maybe not technically perfect, but his last two knockouts have been really well set up and both capitalized on specific tendencies of his opponents. That leads me to believe that the backhand wasn't some desperate flail at a legend, but at the very worst a feint to deter Silva as Weidman tried to regain his balance and throw the left hook, at best an intelligently thrown shot to disrupt Silva's timing and footwork by making him move to the wrong side. Honestly, in some ways it very closely resembles a soft right hand.
As the backhand comes, Silva performs another small pivot to the other side. While this ordinarily should have caused a left hook to sail by an inch or two short, it actually lines him up in front of Weidman (though both of them have their feet way out of position) Weidman steps his left foot forward right towards Silva's center as he throws the left hook. One important thing to note is that Weidman brought his right foot with him as he threw the cross and the backhanded right, though not to the same extent as before when he switched stances, because this time he wants to unload. This actually works to give him the ability to step really far into the left hook so that he can cover the distance needed and land the fight-finishing blow. Note that at the time of contact, Weidman is at an inside angle, Silva is square, leaning over his feet, off balance and moving towards the left hook. But, if Weidman didn't fully commit, didn't bring his right foot forward, chose to attack at a less opportune time, didn't step his left foot all the way in with the left hook and didn't use the backhand to fuck everything up, Silva would have looked as untouchable as a ghost like always.
In the end, I think Weidman fought a perfect fight for what he's able to do. He forced Silva to work harder and harder to make the bait attractive enough to bite, and when Weidman bit he did it with commitment and covered enough distance with his footwork to pull off one hell of an upset.
For example, in this gif, Weidman connects with a right hand. But notice how Anderson moves when it happens. Silva is very fond of pivoting to move his head and move backwards, he rarely actually moves straight back. He mostly steps his lead foot back as he does so, switching stances because it allows him to cover more distance. Weidman sees Silva baiting him with his hands on his hips. Notice that Silva's right foot is forward, meaning he will likely pivot on his left foot, moving to his own left (Weidman's right). Thus, Weidman comes forward and when he throws his right hand, he steps his right foot off to the side to cut Silva off and land the shot while also switching stances. This shows great anticipation, as it allows him to both land the shot AND angle off to his left immediately after landing. That's smart stuff.
This second gif shows the type of pressure I'm talking about. Weidman stays right in front of Silva and taunts back when Silva taunts him. When Silva attacks, he hops back a little to avoid taking damage then immediately gets back in front of Silva. Notice how Weidman is actually also baiting Silva by having his weight forward, so he can pull it back as soon as Silva attacks. He even does this by jabbing and leaning forward so that he can pull away from Silva's counter left straight in that gif.
Eventually, Weidman saw an opening left by Silva that he believed he could really exploit and even though it took 4 punches, he did it.
The short version is Weidman stayed in Silva's face while leaving him no openings, Silva did everything he could to bait Weidman into reaching, but Weidman covered enough ground and disrupted his movement to land the knockout. Here's the gif:
Two things happen immediately in that gif: 1. Weidman pivots to his left with a long left hook to take the picture perfect example of an inside angle and gets Silva fully square. 2. As this happens, Silva steps his left foot to the left and squats a little, making himself even more square and making himself less mobile.
At this point, I don't think anyone in the world could resist trying to punch Silva. His back is near the cage, he's completely square, his hands are down (they don't look threatening) and his head looks like it's RIGHT THERE (though it's really just out of range). Weidman decides to go for it and truly commits to attacking with strikes for the first time in the fight.
He throws a jab and a hard cross right behind it that should have taken out anyone in mma who isn't Silva, but of course Silva was planning to move his head the whole time and has the skill to do it with a pivot. As the right misses, Silva's footwork has actually put him at an inside angle with Weidman in a pretty bad position. So everyone saying his footwork was off should really watch it at work in this gif. It's still beautiful. But, notice how close Weidman came to connecting because of how far forward he moved. This puts Silva in a range where he won't be able to effectively counter with straight punches (and he isn't one to counter with hooks, though he probably could have landed a very clean right hook if he was comfortable with it) and explains why he wasn't trying to counter; he wasn't in position to do it the way he likes so he wanted to move more and get a better opening.
Weidman, in a pretty awful position, throws an improvised backhand that ended up being the key to the fight. Now a bunch of people read that great Jack Slack article (that article might even be called prophetic haha) and assumed Weidman must have been planning this his whole camp. Personally, I'm not sure. He DEFINITELY didn't plan to throw it when he started. Whether or not he trained it as a backup measure for similar situations is up for debate. I like to think that he at least understood its function when he threw it. From his knockout of Munoz and his patience in this fight, the one word I would use to describe Weidman's standup is intelligent. Maybe not technically perfect, but his last two knockouts have been really well set up and both capitalized on specific tendencies of his opponents. That leads me to believe that the backhand wasn't some desperate flail at a legend, but at the very worst a feint to deter Silva as Weidman tried to regain his balance and throw the left hook, at best an intelligently thrown shot to disrupt Silva's timing and footwork by making him move to the wrong side. Honestly, in some ways it very closely resembles a soft right hand.
As the backhand comes, Silva performs another small pivot to the other side. While this ordinarily should have caused a left hook to sail by an inch or two short, it actually lines him up in front of Weidman (though both of them have their feet way out of position) Weidman steps his left foot forward right towards Silva's center as he throws the left hook. One important thing to note is that Weidman brought his right foot with him as he threw the cross and the backhanded right, though not to the same extent as before when he switched stances, because this time he wants to unload. This actually works to give him the ability to step really far into the left hook so that he can cover the distance needed and land the fight-finishing blow. Note that at the time of contact, Weidman is at an inside angle, Silva is square, leaning over his feet, off balance and moving towards the left hook. But, if Weidman didn't fully commit, didn't bring his right foot forward, chose to attack at a less opportune time, didn't step his left foot all the way in with the left hook and didn't use the backhand to fuck everything up, Silva would have looked as untouchable as a ghost like always.
In the end, I think Weidman fought a perfect fight for what he's able to do. He forced Silva to work harder and harder to make the bait attractive enough to bite, and when Weidman bit he did it with commitment and covered enough distance with his footwork to pull off one hell of an upset.
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