Outside of his own camp, few people expected anything good to happen to Fabricio Werdum. He showed up in San Jose, Calif. as a 5-1 underdog against the world’s greatest heavyweight. He was, according to conventional wisdom, simply outmatched and underpaid. He was the grinning Washington Generals to Fedor Emelianenko‘s stoic Globetrotters.
This was not the supercharged heavyweight showdown MMA fans had been waiting for. This was a consolation prize. This was the Russian “Last Emperor” Emelianenko, the consensus number one heavyweight, taking on the UFC castoff Werdum in what was regarded by fans and media as little more than a tune-up before an inevitable showdown between Emelianenko and Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem.
Werdum was necessary, in a way, but in the days before the bout he had begun to seem like an extra, a prop. It was hard to watch him joking with his trainers and teammates in San Jose throughout the week without wondering if he really knew what he was in for on that Saturday night in June.
Fedor didn’t joke. Fedor barely smiled. In the afternoon he could be seen jogging through the streets of downtown San Jose like a business traveler trying to stick to some resolution that he would exercise even when on the road. Fedor was there to work.