The Tortoise and the Hare was always one of my favorite Aesop’s Fables growing up. It was a story ingrained with the moral that speed doesn’t always win the race.
Sometimes slow and steady is the way to go. The same moral can be taken away from the UFC 188 heavyweight title fight between Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez.
Werdum, a heavy underdog coming into the fight, fought at a tortoise’s pace against the hare of the heavyweight division, spoiling one of the biggest homecomings of the year. Mexico’s native son, Velasquez, had looked like Aquaman throughout his career, dragging opponents out to deep waters and leaving them to drown.
But out of the water, 7,382 feet above sea level in this case, Velasquez looked ordinary. He opened up against Werdum in the first round with the same aggressive pace he’s used to wear down countless other heavyweights. But merely after a few minutes of resistance, Velasquez started to slow down.
It was uncanny seeing a man many considered one of the most conditioned combat athletes in the world taking deep breaths after only a round of action. When speaking with Fox Sports’ Ariel Helwani after the fight, Werdum claimed he saw the fight drain out of Velasquez:
“I saw when he was very tired because he just came into Mexico two weeks before,” Werdum said. “I listened when he breathed and I saw when he was very tired, and I said, ‘This is my moment.’”
Werdum calmly weaved his way through Velasquez’s wild strikes and began landing significant punches of his own, busting up the heavyweight star in a way none of us had ever seen before. Velasquez was basically a zombie in the cage fighting on autopilot. Huffing, puffing, wheezing, gasping—Velasquez did all he could in an attempt to catch his second wind.
But it never came.
Velasquez immediately reverted back to wrestling in the third round hoping he could get a takedown and ride out some top time, which is typically an effective strategy for world-class wrestlers. Unfortunately for Velasquez, he wasn’t dealing with an average opponent on the ground.
Werdum, a two-time ADCC Submission Wrestling World Champion, is one of the best Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu artists to ever step foot in the Octagon. His closed guard is a labyrinth filled with unexpected traps. Velasquez did his best to avoid the ground altogether against Werdum, but choking on your own lungs makes you do desperate things.
He shot in for a takedown, leaving his neck fully exposed on the outside for Werdum to lock in a guillotine choke submission at 2:13 of the third round.
During the post-fight press conference, Velasquez admitted arriving only two weeks before the bout to train above sea level wasn’t enough time to prepare him for the fight.
“Maybe that wasn’t enough,” he said. “Again, no excuses. Fabricio was the better guy tonight. He fought with great technique. Very relaxed.”
Werdum was indeed the better fighter on Saturday night. We can talk all day about sea level conditions and ring rust, but the results are the results. Werdum didn’t just beat Velasquez.
He finished him in Mexico City, in front of Velasquez’s countrymen. It was a strong performance that quelled any doubts about Werdum’s position in the heavyweight division.
With that said, there is no doubt the high altitude played a major factor in the fight. A fight in the states would have played out much differently. This isn’t to say the outcome would have changed, but Velasquez would have at least been able to contribute more than a one-round effort.
The image of the former UFC heavyweight champion stumbling over his feet exhausted, eating unanswered punch after unanswered punch was unexpected and odd. But it was also temporary. Velasquez will go back to the drawing board, prepare properly and return to form.
How would the hare do in a rematch? Perhaps Velasquez and Werdum will go at it again and pen old Aesop a new fable.
Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He also is the MMA writer for FanRag Sports and co-founder of The MMA Bros.
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