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Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum: Can ‘Vai Cavalo’ Pull off the Upset?

When debating the merits of the latest challenger to Cain Velasquez’s heavyweight title, rarely do we entertain the possibility that the champion might actually lose. The very notion increasingly only makes sense in the abstract, said discussions…

The question is this: Does Fabricio Werdum offer anything that might change the established narrative? Up until recently, the answer would almost certainly have been a resounding “no” from any fan with even a passing interest in the sport.

The Brazilian has long been considered one of the most talented submission artists in any weight division, but his striking seemed little more than functional for many years, utilised for the purpose of getting his foe to the ground. His stand-up game certainly wasn’t poor, but nor could it have been described as potent.

After giving a shellacking to Travis Browne at UFC on Fox 11, though, it’s fair to say that this perception has changed. No longer is Werdum’s striking a means to a horizontal end, but it is an end in and of itself.

Conventional wisdom going into the fight suggested that Browne’s striking advantage would likely be decisive. If the Brazillian was to have a legitimate chance against Browne, he’d have to drag the Hawaiian’s 6’7” carcass to the floor and take home a limb.

As it turned out, Browne looked utterly out of his depth against the variety of Werdum’s offence. While the former moved with all the alacrity of a sloth mired in a tar pit, the latter bounced around the cage with a perverse grin plastered across his face for the full 25 minutes.

In retrospect, perhaps we should have known better. After all, the 36-year-old’s striking performance against Roy Nelson was arguably just as impressive. Indeed, even in his losing effort to Alistair Overeem, he competed evenly with the Dutchman on the feet.

It is almost unique to see a fighter add so much to his arsenal at so advanced an age. The only other example that comes to mind is a TRT-fuelled Vitor Belfort.

Based on current form, Werdum presents an intriguing challenge for Velasquez. The champion has long profited from his well-roundedness and his ability to push a prohibitive pace, but “Vai Cavalo’s” strengths appear to mitigate these advantages.

Would Velasquez be willing to take the fight to the ground, given the Brazilian’s submission prowess? It’s hard to say. Very little surprises me about the champion these days other than his ability to continually amaze. It would be just like him to confound our expectations and win the fight from inside the challenger’s guard.

Should the fight turn into a glorified kickboxing contest, it’s unclear who would have the advantage. Velasquez boasts a more traditional kickboxing style, but Werdum is pure Muay Thai, having honed his skills under Rafael Cordeiro.

The last point segues nicely into the likely possibility that the champion will look to press his opponent up against the cage and beat him up in the clinch, just as he did against Junior dos Santos.

However, dos Santos operates primarily as a boxer inside the cage. Unlike Werdum, his offence from the clinch is extremely limited. Should Velasquez choose to turn the fight into a clinch battle, he will be forced to contend with the challenger’s educated knees and elbows.

Whatever happens, it should be a far more competitive contest than many are anticipating. It’s just a shame that we have to wait so long to see how it plays out.

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UFC 173: Is Daniel Cormier vs. Dan Henderson as One-Sided as It Looks on Paper?

Given all that Dan Henderson has accomplished in his mixed martial arts career, the notion that he could ever be out of his depth inside the cage is completely counterintuitive. However, his scheduled bout with Daniel Cormier at UFC 173 seems, at least…

Hendo’s admirers are legion, so I imagine I’ll be getting a little pushback on that last point. Looking at where the 43-year-old is in his career, though, can a reasonable argument be made that he has a realistic shot against Cormier, who seems to be improving by the second?

Certainly, the former two-weight Pride champion always has a puncher’s chance; his overhand right could disintegrate even the most robust chin. One need only go back as far as Henderson’s most recent fight, against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, for evidence of how quickly he can end a contest with a single swing of his right arm.

That being said, it’s all too easy to forget that Henderson had been dominated right up until the moment he almost decapitated Rua with what appeared to be a desperation shot.

Operating under the weight of a three-fight losing streak, for two-and-a-half rounds, it looked like Hendo was heading for his fourth straight loss, with the inevitable calls for his retirement soon to follow.

One right hand later, punctuated by a few follow-up shots, and all that came before was seemingly forgotten.

This inability to remember anything beyond the immediate past seems to be the plight of the fight fan—and sports fans generally. You are only as good as the last 10 seconds of your last fight. Everything else fades into irrelevance.

Imagining the recent version of Henderson taking on Cormier is something you might expect from the mind of a 1980s WWF booker. It looks like a squash match designed for the purpose of putting one fighter over.

Examining the pair’s strengths and weaknesses, it’s hard to give Hendo the edge anywhere. Even his much-celebrated durability has seemingly deteriorated. It might not be as dramatic as Chuck Liddell’s plummeting punch resistance toward the end of his career, but there is no doubt that Henderson doesn’t absorb the shots quite like he used to.

Despite being 35 years of age, Cormier appears to be in his prime. His evolution as a fighter is staggering.

As a former Olympic freestyle wrestler, we expected him to rely on his base and achieve a certain amount of success. What we didn’t see coming was the rapid development of his striking. Cormier looks like he has been kickboxing since he was a child.

Where the ceiling is on his potential remains to be seen, but his career remains on an upward trajectory. A meeting with Jon Jones increasingly seems like an inevitability—assuming Alexander Gustafsson doesn’t do his Superman routine again.

Henderson, on the contrary, surely must be close to calling time on his legendary career. If his fight with Cormier is as one-sided as expected, Dana White and the UFC may end up making the decision for him.

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Conor McGregor: Why Do MMA Fans Dislike Any Fighter with Personality?

What is the secret to getting over with an audience? The clichéd notion that there is a thin line between love and hate carries an element of truth in the sporting world, but particularly in combat sports. And arguably no mixed martial arti…

Attempting to manufacture popularity is rarely a successful strategy. Chael Sonnen has got away with it by caricaturing himself, but most fans recognise that his tongue is firmly buried in his cheek whenever he is within a dozen miles of a microphone.

Generally speaking, something about an athlete’s real personality has to connect with the audience, whether it’s their charm, their story, their beliefs or any of the other countless qualities fans value.

In the case of McGregor, it was his boundless charisma that first grabbed our attention. Fans in the United Kingdom and Ireland had long been aware of his potential, but many on the other side of the pond were first introduced to the Irishman when he was interviewed by Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour.

His appearance on the show was spellbinding. His affable charm was complemented by a confidence that didn’t merely border on arrogance, but resided a few miles beyond said border. The audience immediately took to him, but seducing a fanbase while giving free reign to one’s ego is always a high wire act.

Indeed, most athletes can’t pull it off. Contrast someone like Muhammad Ali with Jon Jones. The latter carries plenty of appeal, but it would be a stretch to say that he has earned the love of the fans.

The MMA audience is less inclined to embrace a fighter with an unchecked ego. If they are to do so, that better be one charming fighter, to paraphrase Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction. While McGregor has charm to spare, there is only so much talk an audience can take before they expect him to back it up.

And that may have been the Irishman’s crucial mistake in the fans’ eyes. Rather than concentrating on his rehabilitation, the ailing fighter has continued to take a figurative leak on every potential rival 10 pounds either side of him.

McGregor is perhaps starting to feel the cultural differences that exist between MMA and boxing, with his once-endearing views now regularly being greeted with groans of disapproval from the fans.

As I argued in 2012, boxing’s history is steeped in blue-collar tradition, while the culture of MMA comprises elements of both East and West. The latter’s violence remains somewhat intertwined with Eastern philosophy, which boasts an almost paradoxical association with pacifism and humility.

While this association has been diluted over the years, the sport has retained an appreciation for its traditional roots. We are still more likely to embrace a Bruce Lee as opposed to a Floyd Mayweather.

It seems at times as though McGregor’s persona is more suitable for the boxing world, given the fighters’ preoccupation with materialism and the audience’s greater tolerance for hubris.

However, we should be careful what we wish for. MMA desperately needs more personalities. With so many of the UFC’s biggest stars on the shelf, the sport is in danger of enduring a repeat of its disastrous 2012.

I appreciate stoicism, humility and respect as much as anyone else, but it’s easy to forget that MMA is a young sport that requires transcendent figures to help it grow. A fighter like Cain Velasquez might dazzle us when he steps inside the cage, but doctors could reasonably prescribe his talk show appearances for insomnia.

We shouldn’t demonise our more extroverted fighters. Part of what makes MMA appealing is that it attracts so many different personalities. Unlike boxing, we can’t simply copy and paste the same bio for every fighter.

Some may stubbornly cling to the idea that mixed martial artists should conform to the “traditional” archetype, but we need to embrace fighters like Conor McGregor. Without them, the sport may very well stagnate.

James MacDonald is a freelance writer and featured columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow James on Twitter.

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UFC 172: Bleacher Report Main Card Staff Predictions

Mixed martial arts fans have barely had time to take a breath over the past couple of weeks with the UFC’s relentless schedule picking up steam. Saturday night’s stacked UFC 172 card out of Baltimore is either a blessing or a curse, dependi…

For those of us who would gladly spend every hour of every day consuming MMA content, UFC 172 has plenty of treats in store. Jon Jones will defend his light heavyweight title against Glover Teixeira, and Phil Davis takes on Anthony Johnson in a battle of top contenders at 205 pounds. Luke Rockhold vs. Tim Boetsch, Jim Miller vs. Yancy Medeiros and Max Holloway vs. Andre Fili round out the main card.

As always, Bleacher Report’s main card prediction team is on hand to offer our take on Saturday night’s entertainment. Read on for the thoughts of Scott Harris, Riley Kontek, Sean Smith, Craig Amos and me, James MacDonald.

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Eddie Bravo vs. the Gracies: Is MMA’s First Family Harming Its Reputation?

Royce Gracie’s place in MMA history is assured. Without his efforts at UFC 1, the current combat sports landscape would likely be almost unrecognizable. It’s unfortunate, then, that his recent behaviour has further tarnished a once-spotless…

For those who have been living under a rock, Royce confronted Eddie Bravo backstage at the recent Metamoris 3 event, after the 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu founder had dominated his brother Royler in the long-awaited rematch of their 2003 ADCC contest.

Confirming the altercation, Royce made the following remarks to MMA Fighting:

I met him after the fight and he was there, throwing up. Royler dominated him so much, he did so much strength, that he threw up after the fight. I told him that I liked what he said after the fight, but didn’t like the fact that he always talked trash about Royler and my family. He stood up and started yelling, so I also raised the tone of my voice and told him I didn’t like it. I’m a vale-tudo fighter. I’m not a fighter to score points of fight with time limit. Let’s (fight) with no time limit and with punches allowed. I’m a vale-tudo fighter, I don’t compete in (grappling) tournaments.

Making this all the more bizarre is the fact that Bravo has repeatedly gone out of his way to praise the Gracie family, both in interviews and in print. Indeed, Bravo’s first book, Jiu Jitsu Unleashed, contains a lengthy tribute to various members of the Gracie family, including Royce.

That being said, the most surprising aspect of Royce’s most recent transgression is that people actually found it surprising.

I can still remember the first time I became conscious of Royce Gracie. It was 1998 and the then-WWF’s promotion of Ken Shamrock had brainwashed me into thinking “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” was precisely that.

Imagine my surprise when a friend filled me in on a few details about UFC 1, informing me that Shamrock had been tapped out in under a minute by some skinny bloke in a pair of pyjamas.

My curiosity had been piqued.

I bought the first few UFCs on VHS and took a crash course in Gracie jiu-jitsu. I recall thinking that there was something elegant about Royce and how he handled his business.

He was winning fights against men who had no right to exist outside of a comic book, and doing so without ever having to hurt them. Royce was class personified, as far as I was concerned.

However, his words and deeds in the ensuing years have eroded any affection I once had for the man. From protesting losses to testing positive for steroids to giving free reign to his king-sized ego, Royce has done little to endear himself to MMA fans since the turn of the century. Confronting and threatening Bravo is just the tip of the iceberg.

It would be unfair to single him out in this instance, though. In fact, collective delusion and denial has apparently taken hold of several members of the Gracie family since Metamoris 3.

For example, take a look at the bizarrely misleading action shots of the contest from Gracie Mag and this mind-boggling description of the match.

One can ordinarily rely on the breakdowns from Rener and Ryron Gracie to provide an objective account of what took place in a fight. Instead, the pair talked at length about Bravo’s tactics not going through the “Helio Gracie filter” and being unsuitable for a street fight, as though these objections were somehow relevant to the match with Royler.

It’s as though the family has been engaged in full-on damage control since the moment the match ended. What purpose does it serve, though? Short of mass amnesia breaking out among those who witnessed the contest, history will reflect the fact that Royler was outclassed by Bravo.

It’s difficult to know what to make of the Gracies’ need to control public perception, given that their legacy is already assured. No one can take away what the family has given to combat sports.

Their contribution provided us with the opportunity to separate fantasy from reality in the martial arts. Without them, we may still be wondering whether it’s a good idea to block a baseball bat with one’s forearm or whether the flying kick is an effective technique.

If the intention is to protect their family’s reputation, the Gracies are going about it the wrong way.

James MacDonald is a freelance writer and featured columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow James on Twitter.

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Dan Henderson and the Best 40-Plus Fighters in MMA History

It is often said that fighting is a young man’s game, but now and again a Benjamin Button-like figure will come along and defy conventional wisdom.
While the rest of their generation has one eye on their pensions, these fighters continue to mock …

It is often said that fighting is a young man’s game, but now and again a Benjamin Button-like figure will come along and defy conventional wisdom.

While the rest of their generation has one eye on their pensions, these fighters continue to mock biology with every punch thrown and every shot taken.

This list celebrates those fighters who continued to compete and win as though it was an integral part of their mid-life crisis.

Read on for a rundown of the greatest over-40 fighters in MMA history.

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