Reyes/Weidman Predictions and Can grapplers survive at 205??

[burningspear]

The Chris taking a contender for immediate title shot. Reyes KO.

 

[BRaVo cHoKe]

What do you consider successful??? No one is beating Jon Jones beside Adesanya.

I'd consider anyone whose run mirrored Santos or Anthony Smith as a success.

 

[electricfuneral]

I don't know if the cut had much to do with weidmann;s garbage gas tank

 

[BRaVo cHoKe]

Where does one draw the line for what constitutes a grappling based fighter? Weidman should probably depend more on his grappling seeing as his durability and timing seem to be faltering, but he is hardly a Maia or Askgren. Does Rumble count? He moved up in weight, has a wrestling background, and his defensive wrestling is an integral part of his style (e.g. the fight against Phil Davies).

I consider the fighter a "grappler" if their established base is BJJ or wrestling and if their dominant fighting form implores a lot of grappling. For instance, I believe a guy like RDA has evolved past the "grappler" label, though he has a BJJ base, since we have seen him dominant fights using primarily his striking.

 

[House Adams]

In the recent year we've seen several middleweights move up to the light heavyweight : Thiago Santos, Anthony Smith, Sam Alvey, Luke Rockhold. The newest person to join the club will be Chris Weidman, as he steps up to challenge Dominick Reyes. My predictions for this fight are the same I correctly had for when Rockhold was making his LHW debut. I don't believe a guy who has had trouble avoiding the T/KO finish will magically be able to accomplish the task in a more hard-hitting division.

So I pose these two questions for you :
How do you think Weidman will fair at LHW?
Has any grappling based middleweight ever made a successful transition to light heavyweight? Dan Henderson was the closest I could think of, but his results were always a bit mixed.

I thought both Weidman and Rockhold would benefit from a shallow LHW and the lack of a major weight cut... Both are big MWs and would have been LHWs an era ago...

Buuuut... Rockhold can’t seem to be able to avoid a left hand...

While there has been a surprise or two in the LHW division, like Jan and Krylov being better then expected and a couple decent prospects on deck... the division is still shallow..

Eh... Weidman has not looked great lately... but has been competitive with the elites at 185...

Reyes is a strange match up for his first fight... after what happened to Rockhold, I would give Weidman an “easier” first fight... see what happens and go from there...

I’m just not sure what he has left...

 

[L.T.]

If it's over 5 the question is who gasses out quicker. It will probably decide the fight.

Volcan should have won 29-28.
Reyes is not that good. But Weidman is very worn. Probably Reyes by TKO after Chris becomes a mouth-breather after 1.5? No idea how his ground game or TDD is. Does anyone? Chris by sub first 2 rounds is his only path imo. He pulled it off vs Kelvin.. somehow. If he didn't right then he would of gassed and been finished shortly after he went all-in and it paid off.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

I think like most Chris is gonna gas trying to take this fight to the floor where he has the tools to win, prob get tko’d later in the fight.

 

[Dionysian]

You motherfuckers are going to want to JOIN THE TEAM once this fight is over, but there will be no room on the train for you.

Chris by being better. He takes way too much shit for having the hardest strength of schedule in the history of the sport. That should be celebrated. His chin and defense are great by the way, nothing comparable to post-modeling Luke. The Romero "triple knee" TKO would be a flat KO with any other MW on planet Earth.