#4 Chris Weidman vs #5 Gegard Mousasi rests in the co-main event of UFC 210. Weidman vs Mousasi is an extremely compelling match up that you won’t want to miss. UFC 210 goes down this Saturday; be sure to check back with us for post-event coverage! Now onto the fight:
Weidman vs Mousasi
While they both may be top 5 middleweights, they’re in very different positions regarding their career. Let’s first talk about the former middleweight champ Chris Weidman.
He’s now on a two-fight skid despite being one of the fastest upstarts the division has seen. After all, he captured the middleweight title in just his 10th fight. Weidman lost his middleweight belt to Luke Rockhold, taking lots of damage in the process, and was recently KO’d by top contender Yoel Romero in one of the most vicious knockouts of the year.
It’s safe to say Weidman has a lot of mileage with just 15 fights under his belt. Not to mention the multiple injuries.
Nevertheless he’s still going to be a tough fight for anyone at 185 lbs because he’s just that damn skilled. On the feet, he’s an aggressive cage-cutter with some pretty heavy hands and a granite chin. He has that classic traditional American wrestling background which he has combined with a very crafty knack for submissions.
Though he does seem to be a little clunky with his footwork, he has the grit and toughness to absorb damage in exchange for takedowns or his offense. He doesn’t mind going tit-for-tat because he knows that, in the end, he’ll outlast whoever is in front him.
Unless that happens to be Cuban mutant who nearly decapitates him with his knee.
Now let’s move onto Mousasi …
While Chris is the first downslide of his career, Mousasi is at the highest peak of his career. This is actually pretty shocking considering this will be his 50th MMA fight. Oh, he has about 20 combined boxing/kickboxing bouts under his belt too. Even so, Weidman will likely be Mousasi’s toughest test to date.
Mousasi is one of the best tacticians in the game. He typically likes to fight at a slower, chess-match pace where he has time and space to set up his strikes. However, over the past year or so, Mousasi has been showing a much more aggressive side – and it’s very impressive. Whether he’s throwing 1 punch per minute or 20 punches per minute, Mousasi has shown to have the same striking intelligence. He also has a very slick ground game, but not the wrestling chops of Weidman.
Onto some finer points …
So now that I’ve given a little bit of a profile for each, let’s talk about some key elements that I think this fight will come down to.
First of which is pacing. Mousasi has been getting more and more aggresive lately, there’s no reason to think he’s not going to bring the same intensity into this fight. Weidman on the other hand has always been an aggressive go-getter. For this fight, he has said he wants to get back to he old him. This makes me think he’ll be more wrestling-focused. This means we could be in for a dog fight as Mousasi will be moving forward with strikes and Weidman will look for those takedowns.
For some reason, Mousasi has a stigma around him of having poor takedown defense. This mainly stems from his performances in Strikeforce against King Mo and Keith Jardine. However, Mousasi has improved his takedown defense dramatically since then; out-wrestling Ovince Saint Preux, Mark Munoz, and Thales Leites. Additionally, he has spent much of his preparation on wrestling defense for this fight. I’m very interested to see if he’ll be able to stop Weidman’s takedowns.
If Weidman can get Mousasi down, I’m fairly confident he can keep him down. Weidman has a suffocating top game, and even though Mousasi has drastically improve takedown defense, his ability to get off his back is still a weakness of his.
Weidman vs Mousasi is an excellent middleweight match up that you should be very excited for. Make sure you stay tuned to GetMoreSports for UFC 210 follow-up.
