It may not be cancelled and he might fight like he did in Chael 1, be careful going too heavy too early here.

Weildman is a serious opponent and may beat an 80% Silva

I'm not touching this until the weighins now

Like Anderson said, him fighting Weidman is good for Weidman, bad for silva. If he loses, Jones will surpass him as p4p. If he beats Weidman, then I wouldn't mind him facing Belfort one more last time before he either calls it quits or faces Jones or GSP. Doubt there'll ever be a super fight though.

Don't see any reason not to be, Weidman is yet to be tested by a top 5 opponent, his best win is Munoz? Who is overrated as well. And for his first big test he is going to be thrown in a 5 round ME for the MW title.. Against Anderson silva????.. The guy that has been #1 p4p for years?

As only a 2-1 fav... They're just handing us money.

lol this is the exact reason alarm bells should be ringing in your heads. Books don't usually make a habit of burning money.

Can't wait for Weidman to get embarrassed and the Weidman was never a threat threads to sprout.

Barnett vs Mir announced for UFC 164.

Also, 5d has released line for Roy vs Stipe. Roy @-260 and Stipe @ +180.

That Nelson line opened a good bit higher than I expected, might actually play Miocic.

Mir -170?

For 6 rounds Chael got his takedown.

With Weidman i don't think it's a given Silva will get up again.

I mean Weidman is probably as good of a mmawrestler as Sonnen, easily good enough to take Silva down. He's got a MUCH better groundgame and he's a much better striker and a better athlete.
He's also fresh and undefeated. He's got that weirdo self confidence.

The only thing he doesn't have is experience.

Why should he be +500 or the like?

And as far as Munoz being his best win, it's probably Maia.
But consider that Ryan Bader was Jon Jones best win going into a fight with Shogun. Jones had 6 wins in the ufc going into that titlefight. Weidman have 5.

If this rib injury is real, value could now be on Weidman (he's much better than chael) and camps and Dana always play injuries down prior to fights (Gus etc). There's rarely smoke without fire.

I'm looking forward to Mir vs Barnett, I know it will prob be a slow fight but have been interested in seeing it for years. Feel it's a pretty even fight so won't bet unless one ends up a clear favourite and then I'll take the dog.

Weidman does not have the cardio or spamming ability of Sonnen. And Silva's TDD looked much better in his 2nd fight against Sonnen itself.

Wait if u wanna take Stipe. More money def gonna come in on Roy esp towards fight time imo.

How do we know this? The Maia fight? He took it on extremely short notice.

Cardio I'm just basing cause Sonnen's is supreme and Anderson's is top notch too. And Weidman has definitely not shown the kind of persistent game approach Sonnen utilises in any of his fights. That's not his style and it's something that's diff to pull off and sustain.

Something that may or may not be common knowledge is that the fighters will only get paid if they fight and the training staff/camps rely on their % to survive (typically 10%)

Silva's 8/9 weeks into his camp if he pulls out no one gets paid for the effort they've put in, this pressure means fighters frequently fight with injuries they shouldn't.

Generally if an injury is leaked it's true, then comes the cover up and desperation.

I'm sure Anderson would pull out rather than fight with a serious rib injury no matter how close to fight time. He wouldn't bother risking his legacy. What is 1 fight's money to him anyway?

According to him he did just that last time

So many people were on Rockhold's nuts saying if Vitor doesn't get the KO in the 1st rd, he would decision Vitor. Granted he did get KO'd but what little we got to see just showed how out classed he was against Vitor. Always better to go with proven and tested against hype. I think Vitor would have won that fight 8 times outta 10 easily. This fight is kinda similar. Face it, its unarguable how much debuting and big fight big stakes pressure play on the underdog. Its something that even the best of fighters have had difficulty with. Weidman is gonna face all this plus more when he faces Silva.

Last time, there was no news or mention about it. So he coulda just been fibbing, exaggerating a bit or maybe it was not serious at all. This time, there's a rumour floating with over a month to go. So if it is legit, it could be much more serious.

Vitor vs. Rockhold have absolutely nothing to do with Anderson vs. Weidman.

We could just as well say Jon Jones proved it's not better to go with proven and tested over hype.
The sample size is ridiculous. Same as with if Rockhold goes into the second without getting KTFO you have no clue how the fight changes.

It's all about style vs. style and how they can exploit the other fighters weakness.
Weidman seem super confident to me. It could still be that he will fight scared, but if you love the line so much then just unload on it?

If it's free money as some have put it, why have the sharps not jumped all over it?

You would be shocked by the injuries guys fight with,

If it is legit and serious there's still a chance he will fight and suddenly Weildman has a huge advantage, just much more of a risk to bet now compared with yesterday

I'm not saying Weidman has no shot. But I do think many are overestimating the chance he has. Style vs style is fine and Anderson has shown he has what it takes to counter. You'll now take the chance to tell me Weidman has much better credentials, a solid ground game as well and what not. Anyway, only way we'll find out is once they fight. And for what its worth, I do have my money on Anderson. A fait bit and I unloaded almost right after the lines had been released.

I'm not saying Silva at current price is free money or anything. However, Silva itd @ -170 is prolly the best value right now for this fight. Just noticed it.

Yeah it will be an interesting fight for sure. I'm not on either guy right now.
GL.

Gona sit that one out and watch one side of the camp say, I told you so. I'm rooting on AS. Gotta have that one undefeated UFC champ guys who retires with more than 10 title defenses.

Weidmans style is so much different than sonnens though, in that sonnen just rushes you, where Weidman will probz stand for a bit and look for his shot.

Also Anderson just finished his 2nd fight with Chael not that long ago, where he spent around 2 years training his TDD for Chael /Anderson 2.

jones was clearly an elite athlete when fighting for the title, where in my opinion Weidman hasn't proved that to me... And shogun/silva isn't a fair comparison.

I still like Nelson here, he has looked really good as of late, and should win this fight. Will probz hit the KO/TKO line though.

Weidman hasn't proved he's an elite athlete? Just LOL, I don't even know what to say to that. I mean how is it even possible to say that? I'm pretty sure even the most ardent Silva backers wouldn't have a hard time seeing that Weidman is an elite athlete. Excellent amateur wrestler, jumps into no-gi grappling and is basically instantly competing with elite guys despite a gaping difference in experience and training. Gets called into the UFC after a mere 4 fights, and starts instantly beating everyone in front of him, including seasoned veterans of dozens of fights.

If that ability to instantly be competitive in athletics despite glaring experience deficiencies doesn't scream "elite athlete" to you, then you have no clue what you're looking for.