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UFC Boston: Chris Weidman vs Dominick Reyes Prediction and Fight Analysis

Published 10/17/2019, 12:59 PM EDT

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The former middleweight champion, Chris Weidman takes on ranked 4 light heavyweights, Dominick Reyes in the main event of UFC Boston. This fight can help us determine the next challenger for Jon Jones who currently has no opponent. Here is Chris Weidman vs Dominick Reyes Prediction.

Career Stats: 14 wins 4 losses
Height- 6 ft 2 inches
Reach- 78
Last 5 fights record- 4 losses 1 win

The All American is going to make his UFC light heavyweight debut against the unbeaten up and comer, Dominick Reyes. Judging Chris Weidman from his last few fights will not be fair if you consider the level of competition he has fought. So Weidman will be looking for a fresh start at the 205 division.

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In his last fight against Jacare Souza, Chirs Weidman was winning the fight until he got knocked out in the latter half of round 3. Before the fight against Souza, he submitted Kelvin Gastelum who recently fought for the interim middleweight title.

Chris Weidman is one of the best wrestlers UFC has ever seen. His ground game is phenomenal. You might see black belts in Jiu-Jitsu, but there are levels to this game and Weidman sits right on the top of the heap. Even in the light heavyweight, it’s very likely that Weidman will be able to take guys down and control them on the ground with ease.

Apart from the wrestling and grappling, Chris Weidman is a great striker too. He has shown that against some of the elite strikers in the middleweight division, such as Anderson Silva, Luke Rockhold, Lyoto Machida and so on.

hence although Dominick Reyes is unbeaten and a strong contender for the title at the moment, his streak is in jeopardy for sure against the former middleweight champion.

Career Stats: 11 wins 0 losses
Height – 6ft 4 inches
Reach- 77
last 5 fights record- 5 wins

Ranked 4 light heavyweights, Dominick Reyes in unbeaten in his mixed martial career to this point. he has some impressive wins over Jared Cannonier, who is wrecking his opponents in the middleweight division at the moment, Ovince Saint Preux and
Volkan Oezdemir.

It’s safe to assume that he is a good striker. However, his ground game is not as strong as his opponent in this fight, Chris Weidman. However, he might not even need the ground game if he can do enough damage on the feet.

Dominick Reyes has the knock out power. He can use his right jab and straight kick to the body to maintain the distance with Weidman. Although Weidman has one-inch reach advantage over Reyes, he will be the shorter guy coming in and hence he will be looking to close the distance to land a takedown and hurt Reyes with strikes.

 

Dominick Reyes has lethal hooks that can be crucial against Weidman who will be looking to close the distance. Reyes knocked out Cannonier with head kicks, so that’s one more weapon Weidman needs to worry about in this fight. Overall, if Dominick Reyes can survive on the ground and stop a few of the takedowns from Weidman then it would be a very competitive fight on the feet.

Let’s check out some key aspects of this fight.

This is the main event for UFC Boston and hence it’s a 5 round fight. We have seen in the past that Dominick Reyes slows down as the fight progresses and if the same happens against Weidman, then Weidman will just cruise his way to victory. He can take the fight to the ground and either submit Reyes or implement some ground and pound.

Also, Chris Weidman is moving up to light heavyweight. So he won’t be cutting much weight which will enhance his conditioning and strength.

Chris Weidman is very capable of taking Dominick Reyes down. It may not be easy in the first two rounds, but he will take the fight to the ground eventually. We saw Oezdemir taking down Reyes in his last fight, so it’s safe to assume that Weidman can take the fight to the ground and control Reyes there better then Oezdemir did.

Dominick Reyes is a natural light heavyweight. So the pressure will be on Chris Weidman who is making the light heavyweight debut. We saw what happened to the former champion, Luke Rockhold when he moved up to heavyweight. however, I believe the transition will be much smoother for Weidman. With that said, we will have to wait till the fight to find out how Weidman deals with the strength of a natural light heavyweight such as Reyes.

Dominick Reyes starts the fight with a good pace. So it won’t be surprising to see him land some good strikes early on. He is the taller fighter here. So it will be Weidman who will be looking to close the distance to land strikes or for takedowns. Reyes can maintain the distance with jabs and body kicks and pick apart Weidman.

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Weidman is a good striker. But he will have to be careful while closing the distance. Reyes does throw a strong left hook and he can catch Weidman. That apart, Weidman will have to look out for the head kicks too. The first two rounds will be very crucial for Weidman. The longer the fight goes the more it favors Weidman since he can dominate a much-depleted version of Reyes in the later rounds.

Chris Weidman is a better and more well-rounded fighter than Dominick Reyes for sure. but the question is how is he going to deal with the strength of a natural light heavyweight. That apart, he has been knocked out and suffered a fair amount of punishments in his last few fights. So that might play a factor in this fight too.

however, even with the questions surrounding Weidman’s transition to light heavyweight, Chris Weidman is likely to get the job done in Boston against Dominick Reyes.

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Chris Weidman vs Dominick Reyes Prediction:

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Written by:

Alok Nayak

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