While Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva met twice before in the UFC, one person that Weidman hasn’t fought as of yet is UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
Weidman believes that the current middleweight champion is just like the former middleweight champion.
“He’s honestly another Anderson Silva, with all due respect, which is a good, amazing fighter. But he’s a guy who is long and creative on the feet and keeps the distance, but when he is grabbed by a wrestler like me who can maintain a pace and control on the ground, they’re in trouble. That’s a bad match-up. Pressure and who could get his hands on him. And I can promise you, I’ll get my hands on him, and I don’t think he’s ready for that. He hasn’t really gone against any wrestler that brings pressure and takedowns and who has control. Like, Yoel Romero’s an amazing wrestler, but he doesn’t really even take people down, he relies on his knockout power on the feet. He hasn’t gone against a guy who can bring wrestling and pressure and submissions like I can,” Weidman says to Submission Radio.
Silva and Weidman fought twice in the UFC, with Weidman winning both battles at UFC 162 and UFC 168.
There has recently been talk of a super fight between Adesanya and UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz, a bout that Weidman thinks Adesanya will win.
“To be honest, I actually think I got Israel in that fight. And I love Jan, I’m just thinking of styles. Israel is definitely, he’s really good on the feet, he’s a wizard on the feet, and Jan is going to be not looking to take him down, he’s going to be trying to knock him out. Which could happen absolutely, but I would put my money on Israel playing it super smart. He’s not afraid to play it super smart. Look how he played it with Yoel Romero, and even Costa before he [finished him]. He was super smart in that fight, you know, he kept his distance, he worked his low calf kicks and then came into the box when he should. Yeah, so I think Israel, I think he would actually beat Jan,” says Weidman.
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