UFC 194’s Other Title Fight: Chris Weidman vs. Luke Rockhold Preview

With three back-to-back UFC events this week, there are actually quite a few fights that are getting overlooked as a result. One fight that I think should be getting more attention is the other title fight of UFC 194. With Conor McGregor on any fight card, he generally gets a lot of the attention because of his ability to just suck all the oxygen out of a room. However, this middleweight title fight between Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold I am probably even more excited than the featherweight title main event. Chris Weidman vs. Luke Rockhold seems to be a fight that’s a long-time coming ever since Weidman became champion, and Rockhold started his war path in the UFC. Not only that, I believe this is the fight where the title is more likely to change hands.

Three defenses into his title reign, in terms of styles and match-ups, I believe Rockhold is an even greater threat to Weidman’s title reign than Vitor Belfort. I thought Rockhold was always a good fighter, but since he got to the UFC, he became even better. Even when Rockhold won the middleweight belt in Strikeforce, it was in a close decision against Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. He did a good job against neutralizing Jacare’s grappling, but I still think Jacare arguably won that fight. However, it seems ever since his head kick knockout loss to Vitor Belfort, Rockhold has gotten better each time out.

Losses can be crucial to a fighter’s career. A loss can show the true mettle of a fighter and can be a defining moment of his/her career. Sometimes a fighter needs a loss or adversity to truly show how good that fighter is. If any fighter competes long enough, they are bound to lose. We are seeing this in action right now with Ronda Rousey. It was not long ago that the mere idea of her losing was pretty much unthinkable. Now we will have to see how she bounces back from defeat. Rockhold was a fighter who suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Vitor Belfort, but he did not let that deter him. It was almost like such an embarrassing loss drove Rockhold to become even better and more dangerous.

One thing Rockhold has properly addressed going into this fight is that sometimes Weidman has had reckless tendencies. Weidman is a great fighter, and he’s as tough as they come. His knockout power is also formidable. The man stopped Anderson Silva. However, Weidman has a tendency to sometimes move forward with his hands down, with his head completely vulnerable to attack. He noticeably did this against Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida. It was a move that almost cost him against Machida. There were also times in the Machida fight where he got a little too emotional and aggressive, and completely abandoned his defense to get into a brawl with Machida. He did this to a degree against Belfort as well, but Weidman was thankfully able to recover before finishing Belfort off on the ground. I would say that Rockhold is the more technical striker between these two, and this is an area in Weidman’s game I believe Rockhold can exploit.

Another area in this fight that makes me like Rockhold fight is the ground game and grappling. Rockhold’s BJJ and submission game is actually quite deadly. He’s submitted his last three opponents. Rockhold is the first man to ever submit Michael Bisping in MMA. He’s the second to ever submit Lyoto Machida, with the first being former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. Not to mention, Rockhold did not just beat Machida, he destroyed him. He absolutely battered Machida on the ground and dazed him with a sick elbow strike before submitting him. Machida is no slouch on the ground either. No one had ever quite dominated and just bullied Machida like that before. Even Jon Jones had difficulty with Machida for the first round in their fight, which he basically gave up before finishng the fight in the second. Machida has really not looked quite the same since that loss either. Rockhold is a tall and long fighter. He’s a fighter that is big and strong, but more than that, he knows how to use that mass. And Rockhold uses that mass to impose his will on his opponents on the mat and tie up their limbs into pretzels [ie, his win over Tim Boetsch]. Rockhold has proven to be quite the submission artist, winning nine of his 14 wins by submission. His last three wins were all by submission as well. That’s a different type of challenge than Weidman typically faces.

Weidman is already in the midst of a pretty impressive run as champion. I would say this fight is undoubtedly the toughest challenge of his career so far. Rockhold is one of the toughest mountains he will have to climb as champion. Provided Weidman wins here, and I do think he can win, his next prospective opponent should be Jacare. That would certainly be a gauntlet and murderer’s row to cement an amazing legacy and put him in the history books as one of the greatest UFC champions ever. However, I’m picking that come Sunday morning, we will have a new UFC middleweight champion.