While there are some in the UFC who believe that Chris Weidman can only defend his middleweight championship successfully against Vitor Belfort if the match stays standing, Lyoto Machida doesn’t share that opinion.
“The Dragon” has trained with Belfort in the past and recently was defeated by the champion, but doesn’t think Weidman needs to resort to takedowns and wrestling to win his UFC 181 match.
“I don’t think so. Weidman is ready to fight anywhere,” Machida told MMAFighting.com. “If he has to stand, he will. Vitor can obviously land a punch and end this, that’s what makes this sport so captivating, but I think he will be ready to fight him there.”
Weidman beat Anderson Silva twice in standup battles, and recently defeated another elusive striker in Machida. While Belfort is known for being one of the fastest strikers in the division, Machida believes Weidman is ready.
“It’s a good fight for both. They both stand a chance. We can’t underestimate either of them,” he said. “Weidman has evolved a lot, has a big heart. Vitor is super talented, also evolved a lot, and is an athlete that works hard. When you have such a close fight like that, when it’s hard to break down, it’s hard to predict a result.”
Machida did say that he though that Belfort would have more success in the early part of the fight but that the advantage would move to Weidman if the fight continued into later rounds.
