Injuries rear their head
If Weidman’s early UFC career was helped along by a willingness to jump in to replace injured fighters, then his later career has certainly been hindered by the opposite. Since the Machida fight, Weidman’s pulled out of three separate fights due to injuries, including postponing the inevitable Belfort fight twice, once due to a broken hand and the other with an undisclosed injury.
The Belfort fight eventually took place at UFC 187 in May 2015; Vitor managed to land a flurry on the champion but was then taken down and battered en route to a TKO stoppage. It was perhaps Weidman’s most impressive win visually, although most analysts noted that Belfort was diminished following the banning of TRT.
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Next up for Weidman was Luke Rockhold in a match that hardcore fans had been salivating over for years, as both men were young, marketable and extremely talented. Rockhold had earned the shot by winning four in a row, most notably mauling Machida in even more impressive fashion than Weidman had done.
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Personally, I expected Weidman to come away with the victory again, but this time it would be different.
Firstly, Weidman came into the fight looking much smaller than he had before – likely due to a longer weight cut due to the USADA-related IV ban. Rockhold still looked massive and so for the first time in his UFC run, Weidman seemed outsized.
It didn’t seem to matter in the early going as the champ clearly took Round One. Rockhold edged Round Two and so the match seemed pretty even. Round Three was going Weidman’s way until he made one single, fatal error – probably the first he’d made in his MMA career in fact.
He threw an ill-advised wheel kick that missed by a mile and allowed Rockhold to surprise him with a takedown. And from there, Rockhold passed to full mount, using his size and skill to full advantage, and destroyed Weidman to the point where the fight could’ve been stopped.
Weidman survived the third, but had nothing left in the tank and was finally stopped with another barrage in the fourth.
