Chris Weidman Criticizes Movsar Evloev's 'Lazy' Wrestling at UFC 333

Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman has shared critical analysis of Movsar Evloev’s grappling performance following his defeat against featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 333. Evloev, who entered the bout undefeated before falling to 20-1, was stopped late in the second round by heavy blows from Volkanovski (29-4).

Speaking on the "Deep Waters" podcast, Weidman broke down a critical moment in the second round where Evloev had secured Volkanovski’s back against the Octagon fence. Instead of working for a safer takedown, Evloev attempted to pull the champion straight to the canvas, allowing Volkanovski to keep his hips high, scramble, and reverse into top position.

"When you have someone’s back and have to mat return, you never pull them on top of you," Weidman said. "It’s kind of like a lazy way of bringing someone down. It creates a scramble with the other guy's hips high, turn in, and that’s what Volk did. I thought that was a red flag with him going for that mat return… You could just go hip to hip and just bring him down; there’s no risk."

After securing the top position from the failed mat return, Volkanovski capitalized with damaging strikes to close out the bout. Podcast host Din Thomas suggested that the reversal served as the decisive turning point of the contest, a perspective that Weidman, along with fellow guests Dustin Poirier and Jorge Masvidal, agreed with.