Few things are more captivating in the world of combat sports than a heavyweight championship fight. The main event at UFC 188 had added appeal as two titles were set to be unified in a bout between longstanding champion Cain Velasquez and interim strap holder Fabricio Werdum on Saturday night in Mexico City.
The American Kickboxing Academy staple had last competed in October of 2013, when he successfully defended his heavyweight crown over rival Junior dos Santos at UFC 166. A knee injury forced the cardio machine out of his initial bout with “Vai Cavalo” at UFC 188, where the Brazilian grappling ace would go on to knock out replacement Mark Hunt to become the division’s interim champion in the promotion’s official debut in Mexico’s capital city.
Werdum’s victory over the Super Samoan was his fifth consecutive victory inside the Octagon since coming over from the now-defunct Strikeforce organization in 2012. That said, in order to become the true divisional king, he would have to defeat the man widely recognized as the best heavyweight on the planet, and arguably the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time.
With Velasquez’s lengthy layoff and Werdum’s versatile and dangerous skill set, the showcase bout at UFC 188 was figured to be a gritty affair. The two heavyweights clashed immediately upon the referee stepping aside, but it was Werdum who would be the last man standing. The Rafael Cordeiro-trained fighter rebounded to drub Velasquez with strikes in the second and third round before he forced the defending champion to tap out due to a guillotine choke.
With the victory, Werdum not only becomes the undisputed heavyweight champion, but he becomes the only man to have wins over Cain Velasquez and Fedor Emelianenko on his resume.
Let’s take a look at the good, bad and the strange from UFC 188.
The Good
Fabricio Werdum has made a career out of doing what few believed he could.
When “Vai Cavalo” was knocked out by then-prospect Junior dos Santos at UFC 90 back in 2008, it didn’t look like the talented jiu-jitsu practitioner would ever fulfill his potential as a mixed martial artist. Seven years later at UFC 188, Werdum put the cap on one of the best comeback stories in MMA history as he upset long-standing heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez to become the undisputed heavyweight title holder.
While Velasquez came out in full attack mode in the first round, it was Werdum’s striking that made the difference for the rest of the fight. The 37-year-old Brazilian battered the AKA staple in the stand-up game and had the champion rocked and wobbly until he secured the victory with a guillotine choke in the third round of the fight.
MMA is filled with great stories, but for a guy who was cast aside by a promotion and then rally to earn the title “the baddest man on the planet” is truly something special. Furthermore, the newly crowned champion may now have an argument as the greatest heavyweight of all time. He’s the only man to ever compete who owns victories over Fedor Emelianenko and Velasquez, and his win on Saturday night will certainly give him a case for that claim.
—Overcoming adversity is nothing new for Eddie Alvarez, but the Underground King dug deep to edge out Gilbert Melendez in their long-awaited grudge match. El Nino closed Alvarez’s left eye with a short elbow during an early exchange in the first round, and the Philadelphia native was forced to fight the final two frames with his vision impaired.
Nevertheless, the Blackzilians representative employed a wrestling-heavy approach and used his grappling to take the final two rounds en route to picking up his first victory inside the Octagon. While the bout between the former Strikeforce and Bellator champions wasn’t the barn burner it was figured to be, coming out on top of the feud with Melendez will certainly be a career highlight for Alvarez.
—Kelvin Gastelum‘s last trip to the Octagon ended about as badly as a fight night can end. Not only did he come out on the business end of his fight with Tyron Woodley, but he missed weight for the bout, and President Dana White demanded the Yuma resident compete as a middleweight going forward.
Fortunately for The Ultimate Fighter 17 winner, the opposite results were garnered at UFC 188 as he battered Nate Marquardt into pulp to pick up the TKO victory. Gastelum was all over the former Strikeforce champion throughout the first two rounds, and when Marquardt couldn’t answer the bell for the third round, the fight was over.
In his post-fight interview Gastelum expressed interest in returning to the welterweight division if Dana White and matchmaker Joe Silva saw fit.
—If fight fans weren’t familiar with Yair Rodriguez before Saturday night, they certainly will be now following his performance at UFC 188. The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America winner put on a spectacular showing en route to earning a hard-fought split-decision victory over Charles Rosa.
Rodriguez threw a wide array of strikes and submission attempts at the American Top Team fighter throughout the three-round affair that kept the crowd in Mexico City going wild from start to finish. While the featherweight division is becoming one of the deepest under the UFC banner, Rodriguez will certainly get a bigger name in his next outing following his win over Rosa.
—There has been a lot of talk about Henry Cejudo becoming the next man to challenge Demetrious Johnson for the flyweight title. While the Olympic gold medal winner kept his undefeated record intact by defeating Chico Camus in a hard-fought tilt, it wasn’t the caliber of performance that will make a case for title contention.
Cejudo pressed the action and was able to control the Roufusport representative throughout the fight, but Camus was able to stuff the majority of his takedowns and pepper him with counter shots. The end result was another victory for Cejudo, but if his work inside the cage had matched his Aztec warrior walkout, then a title shot would’ve come in fast and furious fashion.
—There was a lot at stake for Efrain Escudero at UFC 188. After an unsuccessful run following winning The Ultimate Fighter Season Eight, the MMA Lab representative was released from the UFC roster. After another unsuccessful stint in the UFC, Escudero battled to return to the sport’s biggest stage in 2014, but after dropping one of his two bouts during his comeback, his fight with Drew Dober became a must-win situation.
There was further pressure with the fight taking place in his native country, and he absolutely responded. Escudero locked on a fight-ending guillotine choke that secured what will be a memorable experience in the TUF winner’s career.
—Patrick Williams came to Mexico City looking for his first UFC victory, and he managed to put himself in the record book in the process. The Animal notched the fastest submission finish in WEC and UFC bantamweight history when he put Alejandro Perez to sleep with a guillotine choke just 23 seconds into the fight.
Williams staggered Perez with a clean right hand and immediately pounced to lock on the choke. Several seconds later, the Mexico native went limp, and Williams stamped the win in impressive fashion. That said, his failed attempt at a celebratory back flip was a different story.
—Normally it takes two good eyes to win a fight at the highest level, but Johnny Case only needed one to best Francisco Trevino to start the FX portion of UFC 188. The 25-year-old Iowa native rebounded from an accidental eye poke in the early goings of the bout to hand Sitkayan the first loss of his professional career via unanimous decision.
With the win, Hollywood has now found victory in all three of his showings inside the Octagon, and he will keep the hype that has been building behind him rolling strong.
The Bad
It wasn’t all too long ago Nate Marquardt was competing at a championship level inside the cage, but things haven’t been going too “great” for him as of late.
The seasoned veteran has failed to find victory on a consistent basis over the past two years, and attempts to jump start his career by moving around to different weight classes have been in vain. The 36-year-old former middleweight title challenger came into Mexico City in desperate need to turn things around, and he simply didn’t have an answer for what Kelvin Gastelum brought his way inside the Octagon.
The 23-year-old Arizona-based fighter but a beating on the former Strikeforce welterweight champion to the point where the fight could have easily been stopped in the second round. Instead, Marquardt would go on to survive the stanza, only to have the fight called between rounds.
While it was certainly a valiant effort from Marquardt, the reality is that he’s now been defeated in five of his last six bouts. With only two of those setbacks coming in consecutive fashion, it’s difficult to say whether he will lose his place on the UFC roster, but it’s clear the fire and skill set that made Marquardt one of the best middleweights in the world has faded.
—There really isn’t much to explain about the fight between Tecia Torres and Angela Hill other than it was awful. Torres spent most of the 15 minutes in some sort of dominant position while Overkill had zero answers to offer.
Kicking off the pay-per-view with a dominant performance would have been a great way for the Tiny Tornado to get a shot at the women’s strawweight title, but the odds of that happening in the aftermath of her sleeper against Hill are slim.
The Strange
Cathal Pendred is quickly becoming the reigning king of this particular category.
The Irish welterweight has been a key member in the Emerald Isle’s UFC invasion, which is being led by his teammate, and current No. 1 featherweight contender, Conor McGregor. The Punisher made his name on season 19 of The Ultimate Fighter, and he has spent his official time inside the Octagon racking up victory after victory.
That said, two of his three wins coming into UFC 188 where of the questionable nature that left many in the MMA community believing a portion of Pendred‘s success on the sport’s biggest stage came via favorable judging.
This of course cast a shadow of doubt over the SBG Ireland product’s true value in the 170-pound fold, and he came into his bout with Augusto Montero eager to silence the critics by shutting down the scrappy veteran.
While the end result was another successful showing for Pendred, the critics won’t be going away anytime soon. He may have defeated Dodger via unanimous decision on the preliminary portion of Saturday night’s card, but he did so in a fight some MMA pundits are calling “one of the worst fights in UFC history.” That’s a tough pull for Pendred, who has been vocal about wanting to give fight fans something to get excited about.
That certainly didn’t happen in his bout with Montero, and Pendred will find himself in a curious position going forward. The Boston-born fighter has built a 4-0 record since joining the UFC last year, but over the course of his winning streak, he has failed to gather any real momentum to move him up the crowded welterweight ranks. That’s strange any way you cut it, and it’s a reality Pendred will still be facing in the aftermath of UFC 188.
The wild Mexican crowd was bonkers, Yair Rodriguez became the first fighter to puke inside the Octagon during his post-fight interview and altitude helped Fabricio Werdum topple the legendary cardio of Cain Velasquez.
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
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