Chris Weidman is your new UFC middleweight champion. Has that sunk in for you yet?
Me neither.
UFC 162 was a chance for the unbeaten challenger from Baldwin, New York to make history, and he did just that, catching Anderson Silva with a left hand on the chin as the champion dodged punches with his hands down. After Silva joked that he was hurt by an initial shot that didn’t land flush, Weidman connected with a quick left that put Silva in trouble for real, and from there, the challenger pounced and became the champion.
Before going any further, let’s put that in perspective: today is the first day in almost seven years that someone not named Anderson Silva stands atop the middleweight division, and he took over the throne in impressive fashion, just as he said he would.
Say what you will about Silva performance; the antics were no different than what we saw from Silva against Demian Maia and Stephan Bonnar, and neither of those athletes was able to capitalize when “The Spider” presented them with the opportunity.
Weidman did and that fact needs to be remembered as we start moving forward in this new era in the middleweight division.
Prior to this fight, I said Weidman would emerge from this event as a star regardless of the outcome. This outcome has the potential to take him right to superstar status. He handled the pressures of headlining his first pay-per-view opposite the greatest fight of all time with ease, and not only did he defeat Silva, but he finished him with a highlight reel knockout that will run on Sportsnet Connected (and innumerable other highlight shows worldwide) repeatedly in the next 24 hours.
Heading into this fight, plenty of people questioned whether or not Weidman really was capable of defeating Silva; some even wondered if the “future champion” tag was warranted. Those questions have been answered, and though some will feverishly and continuously argue that Silva beat himself, there is an unbeaten 29-year-old from Long Island, New York with the middleweight title on his shoulder, and an impressive collection of weapons at his disposal as he moves ahead, eager to carve out a legacy of his own.
While the new champion – and the future of the former titleholder – will continue to dominate the headlines, here’s a look at four other fighters that had breakthrough performances Saturday night at UFC 162.
Mark Munoz
Hands down, Munoz’ victory over Tim Boetsch was the most complete and dominant performance of his career, and it came at a great time for “The Filipino Wrecking Machine.”
Munoz had not fought since losing to Weidman last summer, and in the time between that fight and this fight, he endured a broken foot and a battle with depression, climbing as high as 260 pounds during his hiatus. It was a difficult time for the perpetually upbeat middleweight, but he endured, and came out the other side in the best shape of his career.
While the first round was a fairly even, back-and-forth frame, the second and third were all Munoz, as he found his timing, and utilized his wrestling pedigree to put Boetsch on the ground, where he unleashed his patented “Donkey Kong” ground-and-pound approach.
There was a lot of talk about how legitimate a contender Munoz truly was in advance of this event, usually in connection with Weidman’s accomplishments, but he showed in this bout that when he’s healthy and hungry, he’s a lot to handle, and very much in the mix in the middleweight division.
Cub Swanson
There have been a lot of fighters making noise in the featherweight ranks as of late, but Swanson may have worked his way to the top of that list with his fifth consecutive victory.
Since losing to Ricardo Lamas in his UFC debut, Swanson has been lights out, and Saturday night, “Killer Cub” earned his fourth stoppage in his last five fights, dropping Dennis Siver in the third round in a wildly entertaining battle that shared Fight of the Night honours with the Frankie Edgar/Charles Oliveira fight.
The 29-year-old Palm Springs, California native is in an interesting position.
He’s only suffered three defeats in the last four years (to go along with seven wins), but each of those men – Jose Aldo, Chad Mendes, and Lamas – are ahead of him in the rankings, with Aldo continuing to reign atop the 145-pound weight class. Regardless of where he stands, this was another outstanding performance for Swanson, and one that Dana White praised at the post-fight press conference.
On a night when more eyes than normal were watching the UFC, Swanson delivered another impressive victory, and should see the benefits of his breakthrough win moving forward.
Brian Melancon
Winning your UFC debut with a Fedor-esque finish as time expires in the first round is the kind of thing that really gets you noticed, and that’s exactly what Melancon did Saturday night at the MGM Grand.
Right out of the gate, the UFC newcomer put Seth Baczynski on notice, catching him with a stiff left that backed up the former Ultimate Fighter contestant. Throughout the round, Melancon was the quicker of the two, getting inside and ripping off heavy punches while doing a good job of mixing up his locations, working to both the body and the head.
Late in the frame, with Baczynski on his back, essentially waiting for the round to end, Melancon swept his legs aside and drove a left hand down onto Baczynski’s jaw, turning out the lights as the seconds ticked off the clock. A couple more shots followed as the frame expired, and as a dazed Baczynski tried to sit up, referee Yves Lavigne waved of the fight.
This was a great debut effort for the unheralded Melancon, and though it will surely get lost in the shuffle of the major events of the main card, it was a noteworthy performance that should earn him a promotion off the Facebook prelims in the future.
Mike Pierce
It’s weird to say a guy who earned his fourth consecutive victory had a breakthrough performance, but Pierce did just that by knocking out David Mitchell in the second round of the opening bout of the evening.
The fact that Pierce won isn’t surprising; he was favoured, and has been in the cage with far more experienced foes in the past. What made this a memorable outing is that the UFC was clearly sending the blue-collared wrestler a message by positioning him on Facebook in the first bout of the night, and Pierce responded in exactly the way he needed to on Saturday.
We’ve seen this kind of power from him in the past – in fact, he’s now won two of his last three fights by second-round TKO – but there has always been a grueling, gritty, dirty grind or two in between, and those fights have become his hallmark, which is never a good thing.
While you can’t press for finishes, Pierce took advantage of the opening he was presented, put Mitchell away, and should find himself fighting another top 20 welterweight next time out.
And he should be on television; maybe not the main card, but with four-straight wins, he should be done fighting on the Internet.