Chris Weidman’s coach: Taunting ‘woven into the fabric of who Anderson Silva is’

(This story appears in today’s edition of USA TODAY.)

There came a point in his first fight with then-UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva that Chris Weidman had an epiphany.

It happened early in their main event bout at UFC 162 in July. Silva had launched into a routine best described as playful mockery.

He waved Weidman in. He rolled his eyes at the challenger’s attacks. He faked the wobbly legs and lolling head of a wounded fighter, treating Weidman with joyful disdain but little concern.

It wasn’t exactly fighting, but it was entertaining.

And that’s when something occurred to Weidman, 29, the New Yorker whose Hofstra University wrestling credentials were considered no match for an MMA legend.

“At that point,” he tells USA TODAY Sports and MMAjunkie, “it was like, ‘Yo, you’re doing all this playing around, but you’re not hitting me.’”

So Weidman hit Silva — hard — with a perfectly placed left hook that caught the champ as he leaned lazily to one side. Down went Silva. Around Weidman’s waist went the UFC middleweight title. The world was shocked.

Well, except for Weidman’s coach, Ray Longo, who was mostly relieved.

“All I could think right then was, Thank God the fight’s over,’” Longo says. “It was such a relief and also such a great feeling. It really was.”

As Weidman and Silva prepare for a rematch at UFC 168 on Saturday in Las Vegas (10 p.m. ET, pay-per-view), some questions are impossible to ignore.

Questions such as, just how big a role did Silva’s lackadaisical approach to defense play in determining the outcome of the first fight? Did Weidman (10-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) beat Silva, or did Silva (33-5 MMA, 16-1 UFC) beat himself? And after being knocked out while toying with Weidman, how will Silva approach it the second time?

“I expect him to do all that stuff again,” says Weidman, who has been the champ for less than six months and will defend the belt for the first time. “But to be honest, I don’t really care. I don’t spend much time thinking about what he’s going to be doing.”

That approach might have helped him succeed in the first fight where others had failed. While Silva played, Weidman attacked. It’s why he doesn’t need to change much for the rematch, he says.

“My approach is the same as last time,” Weidman says. “Work hard in training camp, and work hard when I get in the cage. Be aggressive, follow my instincts, go forward and go for the finish.”

As for what Silva has planned, Longo has studied enough film on the ex-champ to know that his approach in the first fight wasn’t something Silva came up with on the fly.

“No matter what fight you watch of his, he does that,” Longo says. “I kind of think it’s woven into the fabric of who Anderson Silva is. I think it’s going to be hard for him to change. You’ve got to remember that clowning around is a tactic. It does mesmerize guys.”

But Weidman wasn’t one of them, maybe because he never gave it much thought, even as it was happening.

The problem with winning in such a fashion is that now Weidman has to prove he can do it again.

If he loses the rematch, people will undoubtedly say the first fight, the crowning achievement of his professional career, was a fluke.

Just like that, Weidman’s title reign could be reduced to one small chapter in the legend of Silva, a book that’s overflowing with tales of incredible feats.

It’s a lot to carry into any fight, not to mention the main event of the biggest UFC fight card of the year. Weidman accepts the stakes for what they are but insists he’s under no pressure.

“I see it as motivation,” he says. “It’s motivation to go out there and dominate and put that to rest.”

Longo remembers what it was like before the first fight, when predicting a Weidman win only earned him funny looks and vacant stares from many MMA experts. Weidman proved him right.

“And I tell you what,” Longo says, “he’s going to do it again.”

For more on UFC 168, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.