Chris Weidman plans to “mentally and physically break” Omari Akhmedov to earn stoppage win

Chris Weidman is expecting to snap his losing streak and get back to the win column in a big way.

In the co-main event of the August 8 fight card, Weidman is dropping back down to middleweight to take on the 11th-ranked contender in Omari Akhmedov. For the former champion, he knows he will the bigger man in there and expects that to be a big advantage for him.

“I can never make ’70 in my life, it would never be an option,” Chris Weidman said to Line Movement. “He looks like he is a strong guy. But, I can sustain a certain level of strength and pace as a big guy that can wear on a guy that is a little smaller and strong. I think I have a big advantage in that.”

Weidman also believes he also has the cardio advantage in addition to the size advantage. So, he expects to break his opponent mentally and physically on August 8.

“I match up great. He is a tough guy like a caveman from Russia, swings heavy and wild. He’s on a nice win streak, I think a six-fight win streak. Not that he is super known or anything but he has been doing his thing in ’85 pound division. To be honest, I think I’m better everywhere, he gets tired and swings heavy,” he explained. “Not that he is knocking too many people out, he doesn’t have many knockouts. He does swing wild a little unorthodox but he gets tired. I just think I can pick him apart on the feet, create a crazy pace and mentally and physically break him.”

With all those factors, Chris Weidman expects to get his first win since 2017. Weidman believes he’ll be able to piece the Russian up on the feet and then earn a ground and pound win. But, he isn’t ruling out earning another submission win on his record.

“I think I’m going to crack him with a good shot, take him down, climb to mount, ground and pound him for a TKO. He might give me his neck, I’ll take that too. We will see,” he concluded.

Do you think Chris Weidman will be able to beat Omari Akhmedov by stoppage as he says?