Fabricio Werdum vs Cain Velasquez | UFC 188
We continue our "it used to be better" trot down heavyweight memory lane. This time we're in June 2015.
Sadly, this is in the waning days of the career of former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez. He was the champ heading into UFC 188 but had missed almost two years of fighting due to serious injuries - torn meniscus and sprained MCL. It would be an injury that sent him into a health spiral that would eventually cut short his career. Prior to that, he was destroying guys. He'd finished out his trilogy with JDS, beating him in two one sided beatdowns. He'd torn through guys like Brock Lesnar, Bigfoot Silva, Ben Rothwell, and Big Nog. He was on his way to being in that "best heavyweight ever" conversation.
Fabricio Werdum was in the midst of his career taking off. Always a competitive heavyweight, he was more of an afterthought during his Pride FC and initial UFC run. He was perhaps most known for being KOed by a then unknown Junior Dos Santos. That changed when he went to Strikeforce. While he didn't win gold or the infamous Strikeforce HW grand prix, Werdum did pick up arguably the greatest win in MMA history when he snapped the unbeaten streak of arguably the greatest heavyweight in MMA history - Fedor Emelianenko in 2010. While Werdum would follow that win with a loss to Alistair Overeem in the Strikeforce HW GP, he hit the UFC like a hurricane upon his return in 2012. He ran thru 5 fighters including Roy Nelson, Big Nog, Mike Russow, Travis Browne, and Mark Hunt en route to winning the interim title. All while showcasing a completely new Muay Thai game crafted by Kings MMA's Rafael Cordeiro.
These two were initially supposed to fight at UFC 180 as part of the conclusion of the first ever The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America season, but Velasquez's injury changed that to a fight between Werdum and Hunt for the interim title.
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