This past Saturday, the UFC held their 168th pay-per-view event, and it was a very good one! While there were many spectacular moments, there were two that stood out when all was said and done–Ronda Rousey’s rematch with Miesha Tate, and Anderson Silva’s rematch with Chris Weidman. The Rousey-Tate fight was exciting, with fiery exchanges of strikes, slick grappling, and fantastic judo, but mostly people are talking about Ronda rejecting Miesha’s handshake after the fight. The Silva-Weidman fight was being won by Weidman, although we’ve seen Anderson come back from worse, but it didn’t end up lasting long due to a freak injury, which is all anyone is talking about.
Ronda was taken to the 3rd round for the first time ever, and proved that she really has been working on her striking skills, despite her opponent’s constant insults that her striking was terrible. At the beginning of the fight, Miesha did outstrike Ronda, but as the round (and the fight) went on, Ronda ended up outstriking her. In addition, Ronda made liberal use of knees to the thighs against the cage, and brutal ground and pound. Of course, the highlights were the throws!
Every time Ronda started getting the better of Miesha in the striking exchanges, Miesha went for takedowns. This resulted in her getting counter-thrown almost every time. Ronda also initiated some throws and sweeps of her own, with great success. I believe she landed 8 or 9 takedowns in less than 15 minutes of fighting. On the ground, she also asserted her dominance, reversing bad positions, throwing on submission attempts, and completely controlling her opponent. In the end, she finished the fight by armbar (her signature move) in the 3rd round.
Anderson Silva’s fight with Chris Weidman was as shocking as the Rousey-Tate was exciting. Silva has a habit of throwing inside leg kicks at an upward angle, without setting them up with combinations. This resulted in his kicks getting checked repeatedly, and eventually his kick and Weidman’s check collided just right and broke Silva’s lower leg completely. It’s very gruesome, and not for the faint of heart, but can be seen here. In my opinion, the fight should have been ruled a No Contest, since it was an accidental injury that ended the fight, but it was ruled a TKO victory for Weidman.
Hey Noah, that gif is the first time I’ve seen the actual kick that broke Silva’ leg and I have to say: Weidman did not employ technique there. Silva kicked his leg and his leg broke. Everyone is talking about it like Weidman consciously checked the kick but he didn’t raise the leg – Silva’ kick raised the leg. That was a freak accident and the notion that Weidman broke his leg through defense is laughable and absurd. That should have definitely been a “no contest” decision.
I will say that Weidman DID initiate the lifting of his leg–you can see that it starts to come off the ground before Silva’s kick hits it–but I would argue that it was more of a flinch response than anything. From another angle, you can see from Weidman’s reaction that he clearly expected a kick to the body, rather than a kick to the leg. Still, I definitely agree that it should have been ruled a No Contest.