Chris Weidman has been given a second chance to redeem himself and take back the belt for the UFC middleweight title. The former champ will be hoping that he does better the second time around when he touches gloves with our UFC fight predictions favourite Luke Rockhold.
The pair met in June last year and put on an epic battle. UFC President Dana White has decided to reward Weidman for putting on a show by offering him an instant rematch. The fight will headline UFC 199 during the summer months. No venue has been announced yet for where the event will take place.
It was a dominant fight by Rockhold who managed a TKO in the fourth round to take the belt back in December at UFC 194. Rockhold was an even UFC fight predictions contender in the match. The win meant that he could add the middleweight UFC title to the one that he held at strike force to his résumé. It was the fifth win in a row in the octagon and all come by way of stoppage.
It was a surprise to many fight fans to see Weidman handed a rematch for the title. Many expected Rockhold to fight either UFC expert fight picks perennial favorites Vitor Belfort or Yoel Romero. With Belfort arranging to fight against Ronaldo Souza and Romero failing a drug test, it was not possible to arrange.
With both of Rockholds main two contenders out of the picture, Weidman has been presented the opportunity of instant revenge. It was the 31-year-old first defeat in his career that spans over 13 mixed martial arts fights.
Weidman is determined not to make the same mistake this time around. In the first fight, he tried a spinning back kick that resulted in him been taken down. While he was on his back, Rockhold was able to take advantage and delivered excellent ground and pound to win the contest.
When Weidman was asked about the fight he said “It wasn’t my night, it was his night, and he deserved to win that fight, He’s a guy I’m very capable of just completely running through. I was at maybe 10 to 20 percent of me, and I was still kicking his ass for a while in there. I wasn’t where I should have been at mentally and physically; I’ll just put it at that.
Weidman went on to say that his training camp in the lead-up to the fight was the worst he had ever had. There were a number of distractions which he aims to eradicate going into the rematch. He felt that during the contest that Rockhold has ready to break and feels if it wasn’t for the spinning kick he would have gone on to win.
Luke Rockhold will be the UFC expert fight picks, favourite going into the octagon in June. If Weidman is going to reclaim the belt, he will have to have a perfect fight, cutting out silly mistakes. The best UFC 199 betting tips, have Rockhold retaining the belt. If the first fight is anything to go by, it is going to be a brutal, bloody affair. A lot will depend if Weidman can keep it on their feet and not get taken down by the dominant Rockhold.