Predictions for UFC 187 Jones vs. Johnson and Weidman vs. Belfort. I think the underdog Anthony "Rumble" Johnson will KO the champ if Jones stands with him but if it goes to the ground Jones will win by submission and I think Weidman will lose his belt too, he is not a real champion, Anderson Silva broke his leg had surgey went thru rehab came back and has the same number of fights as Weidman since the two fought
I'm gonna be keeping a close eye on the
odds for that fight - I'm a big Johnson fan as well, and I certainly think he's a live dog in that fight.
FWIW I'll be surprised if this fight spends much time on the ground. Gustaffson stuffed pretty much all of Jones's shots. He got a few in on Cormier after Cormier had already mentally checked out. And Johnson is pretty good at stuffing takedowns - they're like the one thing Phil Davis is really good at, and remember how silly Johnson made him look?
Jones should def be the favourite though. If nothing else, he's got an excellent game planning team behind him and I expect they'll come up with a few ways to offset the obvious power advantage that Johnson has.
As for Weidman losing his belt, I'm pretty iffy about that. For starters, it means believing that post-TRT Vitor is still as good as pre-TRT Belfort. He's 37 years old and will have been out of the octagon for over 18 months by the time they have this fight. Plus he's giving up the height and reach advantages. That's not a great starting point for beating a guy like Weidman...
I thought Johnson at least had a chance until I seen them stand next to each other and seen the size difference.
Same was true when he fought Gustaffson though, he gave up a big height and reach advantage. So you never know... plus the Gustaffson fight showed us that he turns into a stone cold killer after being poked in the eye. And you just
know Jones is gonna poke him in the eye at some point
People like to claim Weidman got lucky in the first match because Anderson was show boating. I counter that with, that is how Anderson fights in just about every single one of his fights. Forrest - Bonnar - Maia were all victims to it. There was no luck .. Anderson got KO. The Sonnen vs Anderon fights are more controversial than the Anderson / Weidman fights. It is unfortunate that Anderson broke his leg in the second fight but at this point he was the challenger not the champion. Anderson will be forever known as one of the greats but Weidman is the current ("real") champion.
Gotta agree - yes Silva was clowning in the first fight, and yes it was horribly unfortunate that he broke his leg in the second one. But none of those things mean that Weidman only won by luck. He was winning
both fights before those things happened.