Chris Weidman Confident He Can Finish Anderson Silva after UFC on Fuel TV 4 Win

Following his one-sided victory over the highly-regarded Mark Munoz in the UFC on Fuel TV 4 main event, Weidman [pictured: right] did not mince words when asked what was next for him, calling out UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

“I think I'm a good matchup for him,” Weidman told Fox Sports after his victory over Munoz at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. “I think I can take him down and submit him. Every time I've had a full training camp, I've finished my opponent, dating back to my first MMA fight. Give me a full training camp against Anderson Silva, and I'm pretty confident I'm not just going to get the [win] but get a finish over one of the best fighters of all time.”

Weidman was the aggressor from the opening seconds of his bout with Munoz, snatching a single-leg and snapping the former NCAA Division I wrestling champion to the canvas.

“I don't want to say I was surprised, but it was nice that [the takedown came easily],” Weidman said. “I just timed it right, and it was cool that it worked.”

The undefeated prospect then continually threatened with submissions while he had Munoz on the canvas, a fact that he believes helped to keep his dangerous opponent on the defensive in round one.

“Mark Munoz is an awesome wrestler, and I was ready for the best Mark Munoz,” said Weidman. “I know he was trying to get up a lot, but I guess I scared him with the chokes, and it ended up working out for me.”

Round two would begin in a similar fashion, though this time Munoz managed to escape to his feet. It mattered little, however, as Weidman caught the former Oklahoma State Cowboy with a beautifully timed short elbow strike as Munoz was launching an overhand right.

“He winds up for his right hand a lot. He almost gets into a low stance to wind into that. I was practicing a couple of things, [and one of them] was coming in with a strong right elbow right down the middle. It's not easy to land it, but I got lucky with that,” said Weidman. “It was definitely one of those that felt like nothing, so I knew it was something. You don't really feel it when you hit that home run out of the park -- you just know. Once I felt that and saw him standing there and heard my coaches going nuts, I knew I had to get on that guy.”

Munoz stumbled forward and then fell face-first to the canvas with his undefeated opponent in hot pursuit. Weidman gave Munoz no chance to recover, riding him from the turtle position and launching a series of unanswered bombs that relieved his opponent of his consciousness. Though it appeared that Munoz was finished after the first few shots, referee Josh Rosenthal elected not to stop the contest until Munoz had sustained an extended flurry of punishment.

“When you're in that situation, you know you're definitely hurting him, but I have to keep punching as hard as I can,” said Weidman. “Maybe the ref sees the guy still working and trying to go for something, so I just have to keep going until the ref pulls me off. It's a part of the sport. I hope Mark didn't get seriously hurt. I talked to him afterward. He's fine, so thank God.”

Now, Weidman will wait to hear from the UFC brass about his next opponent. For the moment, however, he is pleased with his dominant performance against the world-ranked Munoz.

“In my dreams, I had about a million different ways that the fight could have gone, some negative and some positive,” said Weidman. “That went as well as I could have imagined.”