Chris Weidman vs Kelvin Gastelum could determine the future of the UFC middleweight division.
A UFC fight in Long Island. Never thought I’d see the day that’d actually become a reality. But as we close in to July 22, reality can no longer be denied. Long Island’s own Chris Weidman, the former UFC middleweight champion, has indeed fallen from grace, losing his last three fights. He looks to rebound this weekend against the surging and dangerous Kelvin Gastelum. It’s a high stakes fight that will determine the future of the division.
A lot of people tend to forget that before the Luke Rockhold fight that Chris Weidman was an undefeated beast who either knocked out, submitted, or slugged it out with every opponent he came across. He has the kind of resolve and grit that makes champions great. While he’s relied mostly on boxing, low kicks and wrestling to get the job done in the past, we’ve seen an evolution of his style. His kicking game has steadily grown and matured under the tutelage of both Ray and Stephen Thompson. Weidman still hasn’t mastered his kicking game however and is still learning to grasp the concept of proper distancing. His spinning hook kick against Rockhold failed so miserably because he was in close when he performed the movement. But we’ve begun to see more maturity with the style in subsequent performances as he’s become lighter on his feet and harder to predict with front, side and round kicks being more of his bread and butter rather than anything overly fancy.
What Chris Weidman will want to do in this match up is avoid the boxing range and slow down Gastelum’s forward pressure. When Gastelum chooses to use lateral movement, Weidman should throw a chopping leg kick. When he comes forward with punches, a well timed side kick will shut down his forward momentum. Weidman is the presumed better wrestler just based on his success against high level competition. Throwing kicks, jabs and feints will be paramount to winning this battle. Landing body shots is also priority to empty Gastelum’s gas tank. He can also choose to transition from counter forward pressure with the side kick to switch to his single leg that he finishes beautifully.
On the other side of the equation we have Kelvin Gastelum who has put the middleweight division on notice ever since his bout with Tim Kennedy. Now Gastelum looks to climb closer to a title shot than ever before with a win over the former champion. Make no mistake about it, Gastelum is one of the most dangerous opponents Weidman has faced in his career. His speed and combination punching has evolved immensely over the years and is likely to give Weidman all kinds of problems.
What Kelvin Gastelum needs to do from the onset is make Weidman uncomfortable in boxing range. Gastelum should push forward with feints and fakes, throwing the occasional fast jab to freeze the bigger man. He needs to fight in a phone both in this fight as his fast hands will help him immensely while in the pocket, but Gastelum can’t just rush forward to close the distance. Instead, he’ll have to focus on entering the range with noncommital jabs and feints, exiting the pocket when Weidman tries to retaliate, then re-enter with a fast one-two combination.
It’s anyone’s fight in this match up and if both men want to challenge for the belt then they’ll have to bring their A game come July 22.
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Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his antics.
