Heavyweight bout: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabricio Werdum
Odds: (-550 Fedor / +350 Werdum )
In the main event, world number one heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko will put his ranking on the line against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace Fabricio “Vai Cavalo” Werdum. While many are looking at this as little more than a tune-up fight for Fedor’s eventual showdown with Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem, Werdum has an extremely dangerous ground game that it would be very unwise to overlook.
Werdum, a veteran of both PRIDE and UFC, has fought a lot of top-level competition in his career, and has quite a few big wins, including one over Fedor’s brother Aleksander. He is one of the most accomplished and decorated grapplers ever to compete in Mixed Martial Arts, and he has done a fantastic job of translating his jiu-jitsu to MMA. He also has pretty good boxing offense, puts together combos very well, and has solid punching power. Thusfar, what has prevented him from becoming a top heavyweight is his lack of standup defense, his suspect chin, and his mediocre takedown offense. Still, he is a very dangerous fighter who can dole out punishment in striking exchanges and has the ability to catch anyone on the ground.
Fedor is, far and away, the most dominant fighter in the history of the sport. He has great submissions, jaw-smashing punching power, great takedowns, especially from the clinch, and the type of ground and pound that causes opponents to wake up in the middle of the night rethinking their career path. Perhaps what is the most remarkable about Fedor’s career to date is that every single time he has ever been in trouble, he has turned it up a notch and ended the fight. He was getting outboxed by Arlovski before leveling him with a big shot, bruised up by Bret Rogers before doing the same thing, and was famously rocked badly by Kazuyuki Fujita before recovering and ending the fight 30 seconds later. One thing you always have to worry about with Fedor, though, is cuts. He has shown a tendency to get cut over his career, and so he is going to have to be careful about protecting himself.
Put simply, this is Fedor’s fight to lose. Werdum has the edge in the submission game, but so did Noguiera, and Fedor turned his face to mush from the guard on two different occasions. The most important thing is that Werdum’s wrestling and takedowns just aren’t good enough to put Fedor on his back, which turns this into a kickboxing match. That said, Werdum doesn’t make it out of the first round. Fedor by T/KO.
Prediction: Fedor Emelianenko via first round T/KO.
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