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Since the start of his mixed martials arts career in 2009, a key element to Chris Weidman’s game plan when he is going into a fight is to make his opponent believe that he can take them down at anytime. As a result of this, Chris Weidman has chosen to sacrifice some of the fluidity when it comes to his striking. When Chris Weidman chooses to throw a straight left or right hand he tends to lunge forward just as he throws the punch because he wants to make his opponent believe that he is shooting for a takedown. While this strategy works most of the time because his opponents don’t have their hands in position to defend their upper body as they are worried about defending the takedown that the have their hands by their waist in order to have a better chance at stuffing the takedown. The downside to this strategy is that Weidman punches are often very slow and loopy because he wants fake the takedown for as long as possible so if an opponent is able recognize the different between a punch or takedown easily he will have enough time to move out of the way and have an opportunity to counter. His boxing isn’t the only part of striking that is very slow and loopy as his kicks are as well. When Weidman chooses to throw kicks they have a long windup to them. The reason why there is a long windup to his kicks is because Weidman primarily uses the kicks to back up his opponent up against the cage to set up the takedown.

Going into the fight against Luke Rockhold, Weidman should try to diminish and/or eliminate the habit of lunging forward when throwing punches because that would give Rockhold less time to move out of the way. But if doesn’t he will leave himself to being hit with left body kicks , straight lefts or a lead right hook before he can land his punch since his punches are often very slow and loopy.