<div class="Article" style="float: left;">
<table>
<tr style="vertical-align: bottom;">
<td>
<h3><a href="/go=news.detail&gid=437851" target="_blank">
Weidman: I'd still beat him again
</a></h3>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<a href="/go=news.detail&gid=437851" ><img class="photo" src="http://img.mixedmartialarts.com/method=get&rs=70&q=75&x=217&y=113&w=310&h=165&ro=0&s=102chrisweidmanvsandersonsilvagallerypost.jpg" /></a>
<div style="clear: both; line-height: 1px;height: 1px;"> </div>
</div>
<p>Today new UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman joined Ariel Helwani on 'The MMA Hour' and discussed his UFC 162 bout at length. He reiterated his game plan going into the fight, how he felt mid-fight, and how he sees a rematch going should it happen:</p>
"I’m not here to change other people’s opinion but I’ll tell you one thing: he did not give me the belt, he did not throw the fight," Weidman said. "It was nothing like that. He was doing exactly what he does in all his fights. He had his hands down, he was trying to mentally defeat me, make me freeze, make me feel like I didn’t deserve to be in the ring with him. I didn't want to let him do that. I wanted to put him in his place, and that's it."
Weidman said that even in victory, he does not feel like he put on his best performance, citing a "sluggish" feeling possibly due to his one year off, as well as some mistakes in his submission game that he felt could have ended the fight even earlier. But he also has no regrets. He went for victory at every turn and never let the great Silva break him.
And if they do build a sequel, the new champion says his thoughts about Silva next time around will not change a bit.
"I think he’s still unbelievable, I think he's still the greatest of all time, and I think I’d still beat him again," he said.
Weidman is one really smart, calculated individual.
Everything he said is what any nonbiased, objective person can see: that Anderson taunts people to draw them into a standup fight and make them inferior, that Weidman was winning the fight from minute 1 to before the knockout (somehow people think that taunting your opponent while missing a lot of your strikes outside of some leg kicks means that you're on the verge of KTFOing the other guy..), and that Anderson is still amazing and the greatest fighter to grace the Octagon.
Oh, and the last thing: yes, Weidman will win again if they fight and this time by submission.
Makes me wonder, what was Anderson's last fight in which he did not do his hands-down Matrix thing? Will he completely abandon it if they have that rematch?
Makes me wonder, what was Anderson's last fight in which he did not do his hands-down Matrix thing? Will he completely abandon it if they have that rematch?
The Vitor fight? Cause I was wondering the same thing. I thought to myself that if he would have respected Chris like he did Vitor it would've been a different fight.... Maybe not...
Makes me wonder, what was Anderson's last fight in which he did not do his hands-down Matrix thing? Will he completely abandon it if they have that rematch?
Great point.
At first I thought, "Nah, he's learned his lesson."
But then I got thinking about Andy's ego, and pride.
Now I feel we would in fact do the same thing, just not balancing on his heels against a guy like Chris.
Chris has two back-to-back badass finishes now.
That Silva KO will be his crowning achievement, just due to the nature of the man that was on the end of it, and how he ended a 16-fight winning streak that will probably never again be seen in MMA. (Barring Jones continuing to rumble on.)
If it weren't for Mazzagatti, Jones would be on a 13 fight streak right now.
