I'm not saying anyone who criticizes Weidman is a butthurt Silva fan, and I think it's unfair for you to extrapolate such a thing from my post. But Kelman definitely is. Any post he makes drips with sarcasm, bitterness and (now that Weidman lost the belt) glee. An enormous chunk of his post count is dedicated to that touchy subject. I'll gladly criticize Weidman- I did in this same thread, and in others.
People gave him too much credit, absolutely. But since he lost people have swung way, way too far to the other side. This is a common phenomenon and for the life of me I can't figure out why people can't just find a healthy medium.
So here it is. These are the facts of the matter. Even if someone doesn't agree with them-- I think one would have to admit that they're at least well thought out and semi-objective.
1) That fight could have easily gone the other way. I'm not saying Luke doesn't deserve the win because he did. He trained so fucking hard for that fight and it shows. But Weidman is champion material. Spinning kick and cocky attitude gone, "and still". Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman are a very, very close match. They are both large middleweights and very athletic. People think the reason Rockhold was gassing was because of the anti-biotics. They never stop to think that maybe it's because he had never been hit by Chris Weidman before. Chris Weidman hits very, very hard. He's a fucking freight train- Silva, whom many consider to be the GOAT, got his chin broken in half by one of his bombs. He hit Rockhold once in the 3rd Round and Rockhold fell back and got taken down easily. Watch the fight for chrissake.
2) If he really trains as hard as he says he is right now, there's no reason to think he can't take the belt back. If you think he won't, fine, I get it. But to say that such sentiments are out of the question, or out of the realm of possibility is absolutely ludicrous. I can't tell you how many people I've seen here saying "Weidman has nothing for Rockhold." Nothing? That's insanity. He kicked Luke in the body and Luke doubled over in pain. He literally keeled over. He kicked him another time and he literally ran away. People did the same thing with the Meisha Tate/Holly Holm fight. Holm had a decisive lead the entire fight, and in the last round Tate performed a marvelous submission. Now all of a sudden Holm has been "exposed." She's a fluke.
3) Calling Weidman's championship a fluke is baseless and desperate. It's also pretty hypocritical unless you're willing to say the same thing about Rockhold. Rockhold even went so far as to mock the people he beat, the ones people on Sherdog use to indict Weidman. A fireless dragon? A Lion who had his balls removed? And by the way the "Lion without his balls" turned Luke Rockhold into a floormat. Same thing with the injury. Nobody gave Luke any shit over his words on his staph infection (which honestly I believe he had one) but when Chris says he was also fighting inhibited, everyone calls him a Brazilian.
4) Chris HAS some flaws that have become illuminated in light of UFC 194. He needs to work on his ground game. Odds are nobody thought Luke would be able to take him down. I don't know why they thought that, and maybe it would have been a valid projection had he not done that spinning kick in rd 3. But whatever the case, it was clearly a foolish call. He also needs to work on controlling the distance. I don't know why he allowed Luke to keep the kind of standing distance he did, because that's when Luke was able to throw those kicks. When Weidman closed in, Luke got his head rattled. But another thing, is that he needs to take a step back after this loss. The fact is that most of the stuff he's been saying is really cringe-worthy. Saying he was overconfident and lazy, and had an injury is okay. Saying that he was at 10% is not okay. Saying that the first fight was a fluke is not okay. I know what he meant- that he wasn't focused, and that it wasn't an accurate depiction of his abilities- but the word "fluke" is not good to use in the context of UFC championship fights. Finally, I am actually against the rematch. I know that he wasn't knocked out- I don't even think he got a concussion- but he needs time to train and recover emotionally from this. Maybe I'm wrong. I dunno. But if he loses to Luke twice in a row, I don't think he would ever get another title shot. And frankly he wouldn't deserve it either. But the fact of the matter is that he definitely can beat him- in fact I give him the edge in this rematch.
If he wants it enough. And ultimately that's what 194 came down to. Luke Rockhold wanted that title so bad. Chis already had it. Didn't care that much because it never occurred to him that he might lose it.
