UFC 187: Weidman vs Belfort

Chris Weidman (12-0-0) vs. Vitor Belfort (24-10-0)

Chris Weidman puts his flawless record and Middleweight Title on the line when he takes on Vitor Belfort at UFC 187 in Las Vegas.

Chris “All-American” Weidman has been an immovable force since beginning his MMA career and has been in the UFC since 2011 while going 8-0 since joining with the sixth one being when he earned his title in a win over Anderson Silva. Of those eight victories, three have come by unanimous decision, three by knockout and the other two by submission; so he is able to take out opponents in many different ways. His last outing was one of the best in the past few years and won “Fight of the Year” honors after he defeated Lyoto Machida by decision after five rounds. Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort has been around MMA for a long time as the 38-year-old is the former light heavyweight champion back when he took down Randy Couture in 2004. He had a rough go of things after losing it to Couture in the very next fight, but has made his way back to contending for a title after winning 10 of his last 12 bouts. Eight of those victories have come from a knockout, including each of the past three, which he has ended in either the first or second round with each earning him “Knockout of the Night” honors. Belfort is well versed in many different types of fighting, being a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, black belt in Judo and blue belt in Shotokan and has used that to surprise his opposition with strong knockouts. He will need to get in one of these against Weidman to pull off an upset but it will be one of Belfort’s toughest fights of his long career.

Weidman doesn’t necessarily win his fights with an aggressive style as he gets 2.98 strikes per minute, which is solid, but he only lands 40% of his attempts. He connected on just seven more significant strikes (65-58) against Machida in his last outing but went to his strength, takedowns, in order to get the win. He had a total of five takedowns in the match and gets guys to the mat a ton (3.69) on average over each 15 minutes in the octagon. What is amazing is how he can stay upright and he actually has defended against opponent takedowns 100% of the time. He also has been able to defend against 62% of significant strikes against him, but did let Machida do better than him (41%) with the percentage of strikes landed back in July. Submissions are not his biggest go-to move, with 1.3 attempts per 15 minutes, but it is certainly something that he can do with success with three career victories via submissions. Weidman should be able to extend this match against Belfort and if he can get past the first few rounds without being knocked out, he is almost a sure thing to win his 13th straight and hold on to his title.

Belfort is a jack of a ton of trades and he has used that to dominate the past three fights, outstriking his opponents 39-21 in that time and looks for power over accuracy to win. That is evidenced by landing a mere 1.49 significant strikes per minute on a mere 47% accuracy, but has a powerful kick, which is how he has earned his TKOs in each of those victories. He averaged 1.26 takedowns per 15 minutes at a 60% accuracy, but has not gotten one since late 2007 as most of his fights have ended in the first round since then. One area that he may find difficult when taking on Weidman is defending against a takedown as he has done so successfully in the past just 51% of the time and will be facing one of the toughest fighters in this area. Belfort will need to be aggressive in this one as his only real chance is a knockout or he will be defeated handily.