Can Chris Weidman beat the top Middleweights in the UFC? (Opinion)
The former UFC middleweight champion, Chris Weidman took on ranked 11 middleweight, Omari Akhmedov in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs Oleinik. After an unsuccessful debut at light heavyweight division, Chris Weidman returned to his old stomping grounds with this showdown.
The odds were against The All-American coming into this fight. He was coming from a devastating knockout loss to Dominick Reyes. He had lost 5 fights out of his last 6 fights. There were a lot of questions surrounding his chin going into this matchup too. Weidman has taken some brutal punishments throughout his UFC career and it has taken a toll on him. Fans were even speculating a retirement announcement from Chris Weidman. However, Weidman's performance against Omari Akhmedov did clarify some of those questions surrounding him.
We can confirm that Chris Weidman is not done yet. He still has the skillsets to cause trouble against some of the tough middleweights in UFC. His wrestling is impressive, to say the least. He is not a grappling wizard, but the top pressure of Weidman on the ground can take his opponents to the deep water and that's what we saw in his fight against Akhmedov.
Can Chris Weidman reclaim his middleweight throne?
The question that remains, where does The All American go next?
Though Weidman won the fight against Akhmedov it was not a dominant performance. Chris Weidman was struggling to get the takedowns in the first round. He unexpectedly gassed out in the second round and got outclassed by Akhmedov in striking. The credit has to be given to Weidman for turning the tables in the final round, but will this enough when Chris Weidman takes on the hungry middleweight contenders inside the top 10.
The answer is a firm no!
Chris Weidman dethroned the long-reigning middleweight king, Anderson Silva. Many fans don't give the due credit to Weidman for the first win against Silva, but that does not change the fact that he put an end on Silva's reign of terror. He destroyed Vitor Belfort and out tough Lyoto Machida. However, after the loss to Luke Rockhold, Weidman could never get on a winning streak.
Chris Weidman has taken some heavy damage in his losses. He has lost all his fights via KO or TKO. And his chin is indeed a suspect if he takes on a middleweight with vicious knockout power. While his wrestling is impressive it won't be an effective tool against the top-ranked middleweights since most of them have tremendous wrestling or takedown defense.
It's unlikely that Chris Weidman will able able to take down Robert Whittaker and dominate him for an entire round on the ground. It's hard to imagine Chris Weidman winning a fight against Israel Adesanya or Paulo Costa. While questioning the skillsets of the former middleweight champion might look stupid the game has evolved since Weidman was the champion.
The top UFC middleweights are some of the most talented fighters in the roster with an all-round skillset. And against those elite fighters, Chris Weidman is likely to come up in the losing side.
At this stage of his career, Chris Weidman might not get back to the top of the middleweight division in UFC. But still, there are some interesting matchups for the former champion such as the rematches against Kelvin Gastelum, Uriah Hall, and possibly even Yoel Romero.