Both of these guys have pretty much the same height, weight (they're both LHW who cut to MW) and reach.
The interesting thing about Weidmans reach is that it doesn't come from his arms like Silva or Jones, his reach comes from his very wide clavicles and shoulder width, That's why he can generate so much power on his left hook and KO guys like Silva and Hall, these guys has never been KO'd by anyone else other than Weidman.
People seem to forget how good Silva's chin is he probably has never been dropped in his entire life and then he got dropped twice by Weidman in both fights.
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Look how wide Weidmans clavicles are, as he rotates his shoulder he can generate a-lot of power on his hooks. All great wrestlers in MMA have wide shoulders like GSP or Davis, shoulder width correlates to punching power clinch and grappling control, its very important especially from MW down to the lower divisions where most guys have narrow shoulders.
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Now look at Silva although his long limbs compliments his muay thai style very much his narrow frame is the reason why his octagon control is poor against naturaly bigger stronger guys like Sonnen/Weidman.
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This is what happens when you try and clinch with a naturaly stronger guy, it doesn't matter if you've been training for 20 years more than your opponent you're not gonna win on the clinch against a naturaly wider guy, Silva has been training since he was 11 and holds a blackbelt in pretty much all the major TMA compared to weidman who started his MMA career pretty late.
IMO muay thai isn't the holy grail striking art that some people make it out to be, a guy like askren would dominate buakaw in a fight. muay thai is practised for both self defence and to fight against other muay thai fighters, people don't train muay thai to fight wrestlers.
The psychological aspect of being naturaly stronger is also huge. This is why Weidman is so confident when he fights, there's just something about knowing that you're a stronger guy than your opponent and he's not gonna be able to overpower you. This is why Genetics+Wrestling = GOAT for MMA this is why GSP changed his fighting style he knew this.
This is why I love Machida his karate style is very unique and was designed to be effective against naturaly bigger guys. Styles makes fights weidman vs machida would be very interesting.
Thanks to movies people have been brainwashed into thinking that there are guys who has been training for 50 years non stop and can take out 200 evil henchmen in one go, but in real fighting it just doesn't work like that, the naturally stronger guy will always have an advantage.
The interesting thing about Weidmans reach is that it doesn't come from his arms like Silva or Jones, his reach comes from his very wide clavicles and shoulder width, That's why he can generate so much power on his left hook and KO guys like Silva and Hall, these guys has never been KO'd by anyone else other than Weidman.
People seem to forget how good Silva's chin is he probably has never been dropped in his entire life and then he got dropped twice by Weidman in both fights.
Look how wide Weidmans clavicles are, as he rotates his shoulder he can generate a-lot of power on his hooks. All great wrestlers in MMA have wide shoulders like GSP or Davis, shoulder width correlates to punching power clinch and grappling control, its very important especially from MW down to the lower divisions where most guys have narrow shoulders.
Now look at Silva although his long limbs compliments his muay thai style very much his narrow frame is the reason why his octagon control is poor against naturaly bigger stronger guys like Sonnen/Weidman.
This is what happens when you try and clinch with a naturaly stronger guy, it doesn't matter if you've been training for 20 years more than your opponent you're not gonna win on the clinch against a naturaly wider guy, Silva has been training since he was 11 and holds a blackbelt in pretty much all the major TMA compared to weidman who started his MMA career pretty late.
IMO muay thai isn't the holy grail striking art that some people make it out to be, a guy like askren would dominate buakaw in a fight. muay thai is practised for both self defence and to fight against other muay thai fighters, people don't train muay thai to fight wrestlers.
The psychological aspect of being naturaly stronger is also huge. This is why Weidman is so confident when he fights, there's just something about knowing that you're a stronger guy than your opponent and he's not gonna be able to overpower you. This is why Genetics+Wrestling = GOAT for MMA this is why GSP changed his fighting style he knew this.
This is why I love Machida his karate style is very unique and was designed to be effective against naturaly bigger guys. Styles makes fights weidman vs machida would be very interesting.
Thanks to movies people have been brainwashed into thinking that there are guys who has been training for 50 years non stop and can take out 200 evil henchmen in one go, but in real fighting it just doesn't work like that, the naturally stronger guy will always have an advantage.