There are so many prominent names in the heavyweight division. Despite the severe lack of depth of quality fighters, there are still plenty of well-known fighters that will make casual fans watch. You still have the likes of Roy Nelson, Alistair Overeem, Josh Barnett, and Frank Mir amongst others who command attention in every fight they partake in. These are fighters that are widely popular, yet are nowhere near a title shot.
While on the opposite corner, you have Travis Browne who has become recognized as one of the top heavyweights in the world. There still seems to be a lack of recognition for Fabricio Werdum. We all remember the unbelievable upset of him submitting Fedor Emelianenko by arm-triangle off his back. Besides that, he isn’t really prominent when people talk about the heavyweight division.
As well as the UFC markets many of their fighters; they’ve done somewhat of a poor job with Werdum. The blame could partially fall on Werdum for not being more active, but once again “The Ultimate Fighter” concept shouldn’t be used on fighters, who have momentum. If you remember Werdum was coming off dominant victories over Roy Nelson and Mike Russow. Then they decide for him to coach “The Ultimate Fighter in Brazil” with Antonio Minotauro Nogueira.
That took nearly a year off his career, which is never good for a fighter already in his mid thirties. Some may argue that older fighters should coach the Ultimate Fighter because they more than likely don’t have title aspirations. That applies to most divisions except light heavyweight and heavyweight. Werdum is 36 years old, which in the heavyweight division basically means you are in your prime, when you look at the age of all the top ten heavyweights.
He deserves to be in this position, but it’s frustrating to see him not get the recognition he deserves. All of the attention seems to be on Browne following his spectacular first round knockouts of Gabriel Gonzaga, Alistair Overeem, and Josh Barnett. While Browne has been annihilating top heavyweights, this will be a whole new challenge. He won’t be facing a fighter with a notorious conditioning issue (Overeem) or a lack of athleticism and pure striking (Barnett). Werdum is extremely well rounded; who will push Browne like no one has done before. I don’t take Browne’s loss to Antonio Silva with any credence, due to Browne tearing his left hamstring early in the fight.
Werdum’s striking has evolved training under Rafael Cordeiro and most recently (if you watched the countdown show) Lyoto Machida. He’s one of the few fighters, who has proven to use the Muay Thai clinch to his benefit on a consistent basis. He used it to finish Brandon Vera, which was a surprise to many considering that was one of Vera’s specialties. He’s used it effectively to beat the likes of Antonio Silva and Roy Nelson as well.
While using the clinch effectively seems to be a lost art form, Werdum constantly uses it to his advantage. If we’ve seen any glaring flaws in Browne, it would have to be his tendency to get pushed against the cage and take punishment. It happened against Gonzaga, although Browne finished him with those vicious yet unique elbow strikes. Then it happened again versus Overeem, where he took countless punches and knees to the body. The fight could have easily been stopped, but he held it together and pulled off the remarkable comeback. Still it seems to be an area, where he is vulnerable in being defeated.
Browne’s grappling has yet to be truly tested, although he has been liable to being overpowered against the fence. While Werdum isn’t as massive as Overeem, he’s shown how dangerous he is by pushing his opponents against the cage and utilizing knees inside the clinch. He overpowered Nelson constantly with that technique and nearly finished the fight. He may not look physically impressive, but Werdum is deceptively athletic.
Another element from training with Cordeiro is his use of leg kicks. He notably used them effectively in wearing down Nogueira. You’ll notice that he’ll look for outside leg kicks to force his opponent against the fence to corner him. That’ll lead to him locking the clinch to either look to deliver knees or to switch to attempt a takedown. If he decides to take the fight to the ground, there is nobody scarier in the heavyweight division on the canvas.
Besides his achievement of submitting Fedor, he’s shown far more in cementing his legacy of being one of the true BJJ specialists. The way he transitioned into getting favorable positions against Silva and Nogueira was incredible. If you re-watch those fights, Werdum was able to pass their guard and dictate where he wanted to go. Whether it was taking their back or passing into side control, he was able to get to that position.
Silva and Nogueira are two high-level black belts, who take pride in BJJ. That’s why it still amazes me how Werdum was able to pass without much resistance. While he didn’t submit Silva, his dominance on the ground led to the unanimous decision victory. When Nogueira went for a guillotine in their matchup, it seemed to be more of a desperation move. Werdum ended up in side control followed by a north-south position to go for an arm-bar by pressing his stomach against the canvas to force Nogueira to quit. Once again, his craftiness was on display in victory.
My biggest concern about this matchup for him isn’t necessarily potential rustiness. It’s more from a stylistic standpoint, where Browne is far more athletic and explosive than Werdum’s three past opponents. Nelson, Russow, and Nogueira have shown poor head movement over the course of their career and have become predictable as fighters. You look at Werdum’s past opponents; nobody comes close in comparison to Browne. He is as explosive as they come, along with constantly evolving and being unpredictable.
His highlight reel consists of a high front kick (Overeem), superman punch (Stefan Struve), elbows against the fence on a downed opponent (Gonzaga and Barnett), and using knees as a counter to an opponent charging in (Barnett and Chad Griggs). It was smart on Werdum’s part to bring in someone to train with like Machida, who gives you so many striking variables to defend against.
In a division that lacks many top-level heavyweights, it’ll be refreshing to see two of them face each other on Saturday. We’ll finally have a heavyweight number one contender bout that doesn’t feature Junior Dos Santos or Antonio Silva. Everything seems refreshing about this fight, which makes me even more enthralled about it.
While Browne deserves all the publicity for pulling off multiple upsets in devastating fashion in 2013, it would be foolish to overlook Werdum. He is more than capable of handling himself in a stand-up battle. Then if he decides to try to take him down, the fight could end in mere moments. It’ll be interesting to see how Browne is off his back, after extensive training with Frank Mir and Ricky Lundell. You can’t ask for better trainers than that. We’ll see how that crosses over into Saturday in what should be an outstanding fight. While Browne has defeated some of the biggest names in the heavyweight division, Werdum will prove to be the sturdiest test of them all.
Twitter: @Allen_Strk
