How Fabricio Werdum became unlikely 'baddest man on planet' by following own plan

Fabricio Werdum

Turns out Fabricio Werdum had a pretty good idea how his fight with reigning heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez at UFC 188 in Mexico City would go. He was even kind enough to tell us, whether we wanted to believe him or not.

Go back and watch it if you want. On the second episode of the “Embedded” series for UFC 188, the then-interim champ calmly laid out all the relevant factors in this title-unification fight. It’s all there. From Velasquez’s injury layoff (“Two years is a lot”) to his lack of prep time in Mexico City (“I think he is going to struggle with the altitude”), to his strategy (“He’s going to try to knock me out from the beginning … then it’s my turn”), Werdum had this one figured.

Maybe that’s why he seemed so calm as it was all happening at Mexico City Arena. Even when things weren’t going so great early on, and even when he was caught in that little spin cycle of violence that Velasquez (13-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC) is known for, Werdum (20-5-1 MMA, 8-2 UFC) fought like he already knew how the story would end.

If that meant being pushed into the fence by the frantic force of Velasquez’s overhand right, so be it. If it meant absorbing a few leg kicks, fine. Werdum didn’t mind. Werdum was busy doing the math, calculating the rate at which his opponent would wear himself out, figuring that the energy spent throwing those kicks outweighed the energy he’d have to spend on avoiding them. Werdum was hanging on – literally, at times. Werdum was waiting his turn.

Toward the end of the first we got our first glimpses of it. Velasquez, the heavyweight who has always fought like some kind of terminator drone, always pressing forward, took his first steps in reverse. He’d eat a punch and his head, that immovable block of granite, would loll gently on his shoulder. Soon he was doused in his own blood for a change.

Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum

And Werdum? He was just getting started. He was enjoying his turn.

That much was evident by the third round. After Velasquez dove for that double-leg, more survival than strategy, Werdum locked up the guillotine and smiled. He had it, and he knew it. The “baddest man on the planet” was stuck in his grasp, exhausted and outmaneuvered, readying his tap hand to send the message that Werdum had always known was coming.

This is how Werdum, the guy who was a non-factor in PRIDE Fighting Championship, who bounced out of the UFC after becoming highlight-reel fodder for Junior Dos Santos, became the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion. That same affable Brazilian also-ran? He’s now finished Cain Velasquez, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fedor Emelianenko. After more than a decade of wandering through the heavyweight ranks, Werdum made it to the top.

For Velasquez, here’s where the second-guessing begins. Should he have been more careful about returning to the cage for the first time in nearly two years? Should he have absolutely not agreed to make that return in Mexico City, where the altitude makes Denver seem like a pleasant little base camp? And, failing a change of venue, should he have at least given himself more time to prepare for the effects of the more than 7,000-foot gain in elevation, the way Werdum did?

The answer to all those questions seems obvious now. If it weren’t before, maybe that’s a testament to the hype Velasquez had built for himself. If anyone could beat altitude, ring rust and Fabricio Werdum all in one night, or so the thinking went, maybe it was him.

That this thinking turned out to be so disastrously wrong doesn’t necessarily mean that his time at the top is forever finished. It does, however, mean that it’s over for now. For the first time since 2012, Velasquez is no longer the UFC heavyweight champ.

Now it’s Werdum’s turn, just as he said it would be. Maybe the next time he looks into the future to tell us what’s up ahead, we’ll know better than to doubt him.

For more on UFC 188, check out the UFC Events section of the site.