Junior dos Santos doesn’t think Fabricio Werdum is much of a striker, and that was the reason he lost to Stipe Miocic at UFC 198.
As a man that has defeated both of the fighters that competed for the UFC heavyweight title at UFC 198, Junior dos Santos had a unique perspective on the bout between Fabricio Werdum and Stipe Miocic. He spoke about it on The MMA Hour today, believing that Werdum made a major mistake trying to strike with the guy that eventually knocked him out and took his title (via MMA Fighting):
“[Werdum] looked the same. He looked the same. He’s not a striker. He’s not a striker. He can’t strike with a specialist like Miocic. If you try to remember, he was getting beaten against Mark Hunt very bad. He lost the first round and he was losing the second round, then he threw a very hard knee and he won the fight, but he was losing.
“Against (Cain) Velasquez he did pretty well, he did way better. He got better with his stand-up skills, but it’s not the same. When you fight with a specialist, a striking specialist as Miocic is, in my mind he should’ve tried to take him down and use his jiu-jitsu. When he got caught, knocked out, he was walking forward with no (defense). Something very strange.”
Junior knocked Werdum out in 2008 in his promotional debut, and beat Miocic by close decision in late 2015. He reiterated that Werdum’s tactic to walk forward with his hands down was not wise:
“He got [hit] with the same thing. He got [hit] once before he got knocked out,” dos Santos said. “He got [hit] once with a straight right that Miocic threw against him, and he kept going. Like, he kept walking towards Miocic without thinking about it. He was doing something dangerous and that’s very strange. But as I used to say, as a striker, he’s a good jiu-jitsu guy.”
Dos Santos will undoubtedly be angling for a rematch with Miocic with the title on the line, but he may be behind the two men that have defeated him in the octagon – Cain Velasquez (if he beats Travis Browne in July), and Alistair Overeem.