Jul 5, 2014: Las Vegas, NV, USA; Lyoto Machida (blue gloves) lands a blow to Chris Weidman (red gloves) during a middleweight title fight at Mandalay Bay Events Center.
Jul 5, 2014: Las Vegas, NV, USA; Lyoto Machida (blue gloves) lands a blow to Chris Weidman (red gloves) during a middleweight title fight at Mandalay Bay Events Center. Mandatory Credit:

UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman became a household name after being known as the man who broke Anderson "The Spider" Silva's legs. Right now, he is in cloud 9 of the mixed martial arts world, coming off two convincing wins over Silva and dominating performance against Lyoto Machida.

Weidman is all confidence as he is set to take on Vitor "The Phenom" Belfort in UFC 181 in December. This time, he is prepared to continue his dominance atop the UFC world, vowing to be ready for either type of battle: be it grappling or striking.

"I pretty much feel like I can do anything that I want to do in there," he said. "I can stand and bang and knock him out, or I feel as if I can take him down and submit him."

The All-American fighter feels like he can finish of Belfort whatever style of play the game dictates. Weidman is currently at the top of his game, remaining immaculate in his last 12 fights with three coming from submissions and five by knockouts or TKOs while the rest were by unanimous decisions. The track record alone is enough for "The Dragon" Machida to vouch for the prowess of his latest opponent.

Machida relayed that Weidman's striking and stand up skills will come handy for Belfort and this is not to take a knock on his ground maneuvers, which are equally excellent. Machida concedes that the fight is very exciting as Belfort possesses the one punch knockout which is always a dangerous arsenal. If he was betting on the match, he would put his money on Belfort possibly winning an early knockout but if it goes beyond the first round, Weidman would dominate.

The upcoming fight is or course not without intrigue as The Phenom has long been battling critics on his involvement in testosterone replacement therapy. The Nevada Athletic Commission included the said substance in its list of prohibited drugs and a February testing revealed spiked levels of testosterone on Belfort's blood work. He was however granted a provisional license to fight last June.

Weidman does not take issue with the said controversy as he prefers that Belfort is clean of any issues of performance enhancing drugs.

"Do I think that he's going to do something sneaky? I wouldn't be surprised, because he's gotten caught cheating now twice," Weidman said in a recent interview with Sherdog.com. "I wouldn't be surprised if he does something stupid again. My biggest concern is that he gets caught again. Even if he's taking something, I don't care. Just don't get caught doing it, because I want to fight him whether he's on something or not. That's the fight that I want, and he's the guy that I want to beat up."