Mixed martial arts has a new heavyweight champion in Fabricio Werdum now that UFC 188 has ended. The Brazilian Jiu Jitsu ace stopped Cain Velasquez in with a textbook guillotine choke to become the undisputed champion.
MMA fans had the opportunity to s…
Mixed martial arts has a new heavyweight champion in Fabricio Werdum now that UFC 188 has ended. The Brazilian Jiu Jitsu ace stopped Cain Velasquez in with a textbook guillotine choke to become the undisputed champion.
MMA fans had the opportunity to see a bout between two of the best lightweights in the sport who built their legacies outside of the UFC in Eddie Alvarez and Gilbert Melendez. Yair Rodriguez burst onto the scene with his ultra-aggressive style against Charles Rosa. Kelvin Gastelum and Tecia Torres dominated their opponents in Nate Marquardt and Angela Hill, respectively.
As in grade school, everyone involved receives a grade at the end of the test. These are the ratings each winner and loser has earned.
UFC 188 was a decent card on its own, but it was still merely the bridge between the hyper-stacked UFC 187, which featured two big title bouts, and UFC 189, home to the most hyped fight in modern UFC history, Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor. The full card…
UFC 188 was a decent card on its own, but it was still merely the bridge between the hyper-stacked UFC 187, which featured two big title bouts, and UFC 189, home to the most hyped fight in modern UFC history, Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor. The full card is as follows:
Main Card
Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor
Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald
Dennis Bermudez vs. Jeremy Stephens
Gunnar Nelson vs. John Hathaway
Thomas Almeida vs. Brad Pickett
Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1)
Matt Brown vs. Tim Means
Brandon Thatch vs. John Howard
Mike Swick vs. Alex Garcia
Cody Garbrandt vs. Henry Briones
Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)
Neil Seery vs. Louis Smolka
Yosdenis Cedeno vs. Cody Pfister
The UFC is putting many, many eggs in the Aldo vs. McGregor basket, with a relatively weak supporting cast behind the featherweight title bout. That said, there is some intrigue to be found outside the main event…and Aldo vs. McGregor is a great basket.
The co-main event is an under-the-radar welterweight title fight between Robbie Lawler and Rory MacDonald, which has all of the technical brilliance of the headliner and none of the bluster. Also on the card are not one, not two, but three bouts showcasing talent poised to jump into the top 10.
So let’s take a look at the UFC 189 main card and break down the fights.
UFC 188 certainly didn’t end the way most expected. Instead of the familiar sight of Dana White wrapping the championship belt around Cain Velasquez’s waist, it was Fabricio Werdum who was named the unified heavyweight champion.
Vai Cavalo not on…
UFC 188 certainly didn’t end the way most expected. Instead of the familiar sight of Dana White wrapping the championship belt around Cain Velasquez’s waist, it was Fabricio Werdum who was named the unified heavyweight champion.
Vai Cavalo not only submitted the now former champion, he beat him on the feet and in the clinch as well. It was as thorough a performance as we’ve seen from Werdum, and it was as excellent as it was shocking.
But Werdum wasn’t the only one who made a statement in Mexico City. Here’s a look at the complete results and who came through in the biggest fights of the night.
Patrick Williams def. Alejandro Perez, submission (Round 1, 0:23)
Johnny Case def. Francisco Trevino, unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Prelims on UFC Fight Pass (7 p.m. ET)
Cathal Pendred def. Augusto Montano, unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Gabriel Benitez def. Clay Collard, unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Kelvin Gastelum Brings the Pain to Nate Marquardt, Eyes 170
Kelvin Gastelum came into UFC 188 with a perfect opportunity to build some momentum. Coming off a split-decision loss to Tyron Woodley in which he missed weight at 170, the 23-year-old was given a 36-year-old Nate Marquardt.
He didn’t squander the opportunity. The Mexican-American dominated in front of the Mexican crowd, opening a 59-18 advantage in significant strikes on the veteran, according to FightMetric.
After two rounds, Marquardt’s trainer Trevor Wittman didn’t see it fit for his fighter to answer the third bell, as noted by Brent Brookhouse of MMAjunkie:
Although Gastelum looked perfectly devastating at middleweight, he still expressed interest in moving back to 170 pounds. It was a notion that Dana White wasn’t really a fan of.
“I love this kid,” White said via MMAjunkie. “He’s such a great fighter. I love how he goes in with a kid like Marquardt and stands right in the pocket with him and exchanges. His standup looked great tonight. But I don’t believe he can make 170. I honestly don’t believe he can make 170.”
Gastelum might want to heed the advice of the UFC’s president. As Anthony Johnson’s rapid rise up the light heavyweight ranks has shown, cutting weight isn’t always the best answer. Gastelum has plenty of power to be competitive at 185.
That much was clear on Saturday night.
Eddie Alvarez is All Heart in Co-Main Event
For years, Eddie Alvarez vs. Gilbert Melendez has been one of the best fights the UFC couldn’t put on. At UFC 188, it finally happened, but it wasn’t the fight everyone expected.
Both fighters are known for setting a torrid pace, but through three rounds, the two landed just 68 combined strikes, according to FightMetric. That’s fewer than the 88 Cain Velasquez landed in his losing effort against Fabricio Werdum in three rounds of main event action.
However, it was an intriguing bout nonetheless. First, there was a nasty eye injury that Alvarez sustained in the first round. After blowing a blood clot out of his nose, his eye swelled shut almost instantly between rounds.
Rather than pack it in and call it a night, Alvarez continued to fight and flipped the script on Melendez. To the surprise of many, it was actually Alvarez’s unheralded wrestling that earned him the split decision. Alvarez scored three crucial takedowns through the last two rounds to turn the tide and earn the decision.
Mike Bohn of MMAjunkie noted the unlikelihood of the result:
In the end, it wasn’t the highlight-filled fight most thought it would be. However, it was still a tremendous show of heart from the former Bellator champion and a big step toward relevancy in the lightweight division.
Fabricio Werdum Shocks the World—Again
As previously mentioned, the main event was the biggest shocker of the night. Then again, it had a sense of familiarity. Fabricio Werdum was also the man who ended Fedor Emelianenko‘s decade-long unbeaten streak with a first-round submission in 2010.
This time, Werdum’s streak-ending ways resulted in gold around his waist.
This win was even more emphatic than the one that defined his career five years ago, though. This wasn’t a case of Werdum “catching” Velasquez. He beat him at his own game. Werdum set a pace on the feet that rivaled the one the former champion normally puts his opponents through.
Then he finished the fight where he’s most comfortable—on the ground.
All of a sudden, it’s a legitimate question to ask where Vai Cavalo ranks among the all-time best heavyweights. Marc Raimondi of MMA Fighting highlighted the best parts of his resume:
Of course, that question doesn’t really have an answer yet. All of the best heavyweights in the world have had impressive title runs in their respective organizations. Werdum has yet to defend his belt. Then again, it’s not the best of ideas to count out the new champion.
UFC 188 brought a strange sort of clarity to the grand scheme of the heavyweight division.
Showcasing two of the finest heavyweights competing today—Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez—the UFC’s latest event proved the more things chan…
UFC 188 brought a strange sort of clarity to the grand scheme of the heavyweight division.
Showcasing two of the finest heavyweights competing today—Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez—the UFC’s latest event proved the more things change, the more things stay the same in the big boys’ division.
Prior to his latest fight in Mexico City, many fans and critics felt Velasquez could be the greatest heavyweight of all time. The past king, Russian MMA legend FedorEmelianenko, rode a 28-fight undefeated streak from April 2001 to November 2009, but he lost three in a row from June 2010 to July 2011, putting his status as the greatest of all time (GOAT) in jeopardy.
Shortly after Emelianenko‘s fall from grace, Velasquez took over the UFC’s heavyweight class, going 4-0 from May 2012 to October 2013 and outright obliterating his opposition in the process. Velasquez’s college wrestling background instilled in him the work ethic to succeed, and succeed he did.
His top-level training camp at American Kickboxing Academy developed his hands, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, cardio and grappling to a point never before seen by a heavyweight fighter. Velasquez could not get tired, and he was powerful, fast, explosive—an impossible blend of skills for a man his size.
With images of Emelianenko getting flattened by Dan Henderson and pounded into the canvas by Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva fresh in our minds, it was easy to kick the aging Russian off the throne in favor of the new kid in town.
But as UFC 188 showed us, we made a serious error in judgment.
Over the course of two and a half rounds, Werdum battered Velasquez, scoring with punches, kicks and knees at will, outpacing and outworkingCardio Cain.
Velasquez, for the first time in his career, looked tired. He looked deflated.
By the end of Round 2, he was done.
Midway through the next frame, Velasquez’s fate was sealed when he shot for a takedown, ensnaring himself in an angular web of limbs known as the guillotine choke. Werdum shocked the world with a submission, an all-too-familiar story for fans across the globe.
It was, of course, Werdum who first nudged Emelianenko down the slippery slope toward retirement. The Brazilian fighter ended Emelianenko‘s miraculous run atop the heavyweight class with a triangle choke at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum, and the division has not seen a definitive ruler since.
By default, we’d have to give the title to Emelianenko. Calling Velasquez the greatest heavyweight of all time was partly based on what he had already accomplished and what he was destined to achieve, but Werdum suffocated that notion in Mexico City Saturday evening.
Interestingly enough, Werdum is now the leading candidate to dethrone Emelianenko in the discussion. The current UFC heavyweight champ owns submission victories over both Emelianenko and Velasquez, and his career resurgence is remarkable.
Where Emelianenko grew old and fell off the earth, Werdum grew stronger and rose to the top of the sport. Maybe he’s a late bloomer or maybe the game just makes more sense to him now—whatever it is, Werdum looks as good right now as any heavyweight ever has in the sport’s history.
But “right now” doesn’t lend itself to GOAT status.
We just learned that fact with Velasquez, so why fall into the same realm of fallacious logic with Werdum?
At 20-5-1, Werdum’s resume is sensational. He lost to Sergei Kharitonov, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Andrei Arlovski, Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem, with his draw coming in his second professional fight against James Zikic.
Of Werdum’s losses, he’s already avenged one, submitting Nogueira at UFC on Fuel TV 10 in June 2013. Three of the other four—dos Santos, Overeem and Arlovski—are currently Top 10 UFC heavyweights who could challenge for the throne in short order.
Looking at the current state of affairs, Werdum will almost certainly face at least two of those fighters—and perhaps all three—by the end of 2016.
If those bouts materialize as title defenses and Werdum’s holding the strap throughout, it’d be hard not to recognize what he accomplished and deem him the GOAT in the heavyweight division.
That’s a whole lot of “ifs” and “buts,” though, my friends.
I want to witness history as much as the next guy, and I want to see fighters continually outwork past generations, upping the limits of what is possible in the sport of MMA.
Werdum has the chance to do that, but he’s not there yet.
If you need a GOAT, choose Emelianenko. He’s the most logical choice right now.
But if you want to take your logic a step further, say “I don’t know yet,” sit back and watch the cards fall.
Fabricio “Vai Cavalo” Werdum is not only the king of the upset. He’s now the king of the UFC’s heavyweight division.
The 37-year-old first shocked the MMA world with a first-round submission win over Fedor Emelianenko. Five years later, he struck again…
Fabricio “Vai Cavalo” Werdum is not only the king of the upset. He’s now the king of the UFC’s heavyweight division.
The 37-year-old first shocked the MMA world with a first-round submission win over FedorEmelianenko. Five years later, he struck again with a stunning third-round guillotine choke on Cain Velasquez at UFC 188.
Unlike his win over The Last Emperor, this wasn’t just a case of Werdum catching the favorite in his notorious guard. VaiCavalo did damage to the former champion in every aspect of the game before ultimately locking up a choke on Saturday.
Jason Floyd of The MMA Report tweeted out the final statistics for the bout:
This is obviously a huge shakeup for the UFC’s biggest weight class. The land of the giants hasn’t had a new champion since 2010, when Velasquez took the belt by demolishing Brock Lesnar.
Here’s a look at the top storylines to watch in the division after this thrilling title fight.
Will Velasquez Bounce Back?
It’s always interesting to watch dominant fighters come back from a loss. Sometimes, it’s the fuel they need to come back better than ever. Sometimes, it’s a sure sign that the dominance has come to a sudden end.
In Velasquez’s case, there’s evidence for either result.
This isn’t the first time Velasquez has lost. His devastating knockout loss to Junior Dos Santos is well-known and gave way to the most dominant Velasquez we’ve seen. He worked his way back to a title shot with a decisive win over Antonio Silva, regained his title, then beat both Silva and JDS again for good measure.
Dana White believes that’s the Velasquez we’ll see in the Octagon again soon, per UFC on Fox:
However, there’s a pessimistic outlook here, too. The fact is that Velasquez has always dealt with injuries, and inactivity has been a theme throughout his career. This was only his 15th fight in nine years.
As Jonathan Snowden of Bleacher Report noted, there was a lot of adversity leading up to the now-32-year-old’s return to the cage:
Given the general lack of competition in the heavyweight division, it’s a safe bet that Velasquez will overcome those issues to be a factor. However, it’s not an exaggeration to say that he’s no longer going to be the odds-on favorite every time he walks into the cage.
How Long Will Werdum Hold on to the Belt?
With Werdum’s legacy as one of the best underdogs of all time secured now, the question is how well he handles being the favorite.
Looking at his history, that could be a challenge. Everyone is quick to remember his upset victory over Emelianenko. Sometimes, it’s lost in the gravitas of that upset that Werdum followed that win up with a lackluster decision loss to Alistair Overeem.
That’s not exactly a fair comparison, though. Clearly, Werdum’s game has evolved since 2011. In that loss, Werdum spent much of his time lying on his back, trying to get Overeem to engage him on the ground.
The new and improved champion would set up his ground game with his much-improved kickboxing and clinch striking.
There are plenty of challengers for Werdum to prove himself against in the immediate future. Andrei Arlovski, StipeMiocic and Junior Dos Santos were all in the top five of the UFC’s heavyweight rankings on fight night and coming off wins.
Werdum has already fought Arlovski and Dos Santos. But again, this isn’t exactly the same version of those fighters.
For the first time in a long time, it feels like the heavyweight division is intriguing from a matchmaking perspective.
“Obviously, it makes the heavyweight division very interesting,” White said, via Brett Okamoto of ESPN. “There a lot of different options. You know, I never talk about it tonight. We’ll go back, sit down and talk about it. The heavyweight division is very exciting right now.”
Was Junior Dos Santos Really the Biggest Winner at UFC 188?
Junior Dos Santos might not have fought at UFC 188, but there’s no denying he was a big winner. The Brazilian slugger came into the fight ranked No. 2 in the division but knew he was going to have a difficult time getting a fourth fight with Velasquez after losing the last two in the trilogy.
Dos Santos offered his thoughts on the ramifications of a possible win for Werdum heading into the title bout, per Brent Brookhouse and John Morgan of MMAJunkie:
He’s a great fighter. He’s coming from great victories. If he gets that, it’s going to be good for me. Because now I’m suffering with the politics. Because ‘it’s not time to have the fourth fight between you and Velasquez.’ Why not? I’m trying to do my best and I will always try to do that. But, for sure, if Werdum wins I will be the next for the title.
Whether JDS‘ timing is correct remains to be seen. According to Brookhouse and Morgan, the former champion can’t start training until July while he recovers from injuries sustained in his epic fight with Miocic in December.
The worst-case scenario for Dos Santos is he’s passed up for the title shot right now.
In that case, it would likely go to Arlovski or Miocic. With a win over Miocic and Werdum on his resume already, the odds that he is once again able to capture the heavyweight title skyrocketed when Velasquez tapped to Werdum’s choke.
Much like the rest of the heavyweight division, Dos Santos found new life.
Newly minted UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum wasted no time in calling out his next opponent, and he chose the same man he had just defeated.
Speaking with Ariel Helwani after his UFC 188 main event against former heavyweight champ Cain …
Newly minted UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum wasted no time in calling out his next opponent, and he chose the same man he had just defeated.
Speaking with Ariel Helwani after his UFC 188 main event against former heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez, Werdum said he’d like his first title defense to be a rematch of the fight he’d just completed.
“I think a rematch in Las Vegas is a good deal,” Werdum said.
This is interesting on a few levels. For one, Werdum wasted no time in responding, indicating he had thought about this before. He was prepared for the question, and he decided a rematch with Velasquez would be best for him.
Secondly, Werdum’s cardio worked to his benefit against Velasquez, something that shocked fans and critics across the globe. Velasquez is known for his insane pace and pressure, but it was Werdum who performed better as the fight wore on.
This could be because Werdum moved his fight camp to Mexico over a month before the fight, slowly adapting to the 7,000-plus foot elevation and building his cardio and endurance in the process.
Velasquez, on the other hand, trained at sea level in San Jose, California, and he looked unprepared for the respiratory rigors induced by the thin air in Mexico City on fight night.
Taking the fight in Las Vegas would even the playing field on that front, potentially leading to an even better fight the second time around. While this is great for the fans, it does take away a significant advantage Werdum had at UFC 188, so it’s a bit odd to hear the suggestion come from him.
Lastly, Werdum has interesting options beyond Velasquez, and the former champ’s performance didn’t exactly inspire an immediate rematch.
Werdum could face Junior dos Santos, the last man to beat him inside the UFC Octagon, or Andrei Arlovski, the second-to-last man to defeat him under the UFC banner.
Both of those rematches are more intriguing than a rematch with Velasquez right now, and it’d allow Velasquez to get another win under his belt in the meantime, rebuilding his case for a UFC title shot.
By the time Werdum and Velasquez meet again, the fight could be massive. With plenty of options on hand, though, I’m just not sure the time is now.
