The long awaited UFC 175 event is here this weekend , July 5th at the Mandalay Bay Event Center in Las Vegas, Nevada with a main event featuring Chris Weidman‘s defense of his Middleweight Title against challenger Lyoto Machida. Right now, the sportbooks have Weidman a roughly 2 to 1 favorite (-200) over Machida, who returns (+170).
This is an interesting line as we enter fight week. Machida has a lot of advantages in this fight, and may warrant a look as the underdog.
Machida is a former Light Heavyweight Champion who is a perfect 2-0 since dropping to Middleweight. At Lightweight, he succumbed to Jon Jones and Phil Davis, two strong wrestlers who were able to bring the fight to Machida and take him out of his game. However, Machida at Middleweight may be a bit harder to take down and control.
Weidman does not want a striking match with Machida. Weidman has KO’d a legendary striker in Anderson Silva, and he did reasonably well in the standup department in both fights against Silva, but Machida brings a very different yet almost equally dangerous striking game. He has shown an ability to be pinpoint in his counter strikes, and he uses kicks and punches with a lot of diversity. Silva basically took the first fight with Weidman off on striking, and the injury to Silva in the second fight is still considered a bit of a fluke.
This match is almost certain to go long, and both men should be leery about leaving the fight to the judges. Though Weidman is the titleholder, he has just 11 total fights and he has never been in the championship rounds #4 and #5, whereas Machida has gone the full five rounds more than once in his career. Though Machida is a precision fighter and one that does not overwhelm the judges with point scoring techniques, it is noticeable that he won both of his 5 rounders (against Gegard Mousasi and Mauricio Rua) via a judges decision.
For Weidman, he also has the pressure of many doubters who look at this as a must win match, or else he runs the risk of being doubted. Having Anderson Silva’s number is his forever, but there are questions about Silva’s age and strategy especially in the first fight) that mean Weidman’s title reign is still viewed with a lot of skepticism. Silencing those doubters against Machida is a tall order.
