SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
October - 2015
29
Way back in 2008, Werdum was catapulted out
of the UFC by Junior Dos Santos’ punching bar-
rage. He notched a couple of so-so wins, but
then on a June night in 2010, Werdum quite
likely the biggest upset in MMA history. The Bra-
zilian tangledwithGreatest Of All-Time frontrun-
ner Fedor Emelianenko, and instead of becom-
ing another fallen victim to “The Last Emperor”,
Werdum forced a first-round submission victory
that rocked the sport. He came back to the
UFC and beat Roy Nelson, Minotauro Nogueira,
Travis Browne, and Mark Hunt. Then this past
June, Werdum claimed the heavyweight belt
with a dominating performance against Cain
Velasquez. Here his Russian foe in the opening
round sports 50 career wins plus an 11-fight
winning streak that includes wins over Jared Ro-
sholt, Anthony Hamilton, Mirko Cro Cop, and
Jeff Monson. Still, this should be Velasquez’s to
take with ease considering his vast abundance
of skills and an opponent who is 38 years old.
The former champ gets a pretty easy ride in the
opening round. Velasquez is far and away the
best wrestler in the division, and arguably, the
best overall athlete. He’s beaten everybody in-
cluding both Junior Dos Santos and Antonio
Silva twice over. Velasquez is a true beast but
there have been serious questions raised about
game planning twice in his career. The first
came against Brock Lesnar and he was bested
in Round 1, and very recently, it was an error in
adjusting to altitude which left him prey to Fabri-
cio Werdum in a title fight. At one time, Struve
was a pretty high prospect, but he’s never man-
aged that one win which would really elevate
him, save for a KO of Stipe Miocic in 2012.
Health problems haven’t helped his cause, nor
have losses to Alistair Overeem, Mark Hunt, Tra-
vis Browne, Roy Nelson, and Junior Dos Santos.
It’s been a bit of an up-and-down run for the
former champ since mid-2012 when he KO’d
Velasquez in just over a minute. A super punch-
er, he’s lost twice to Velasquez to round out
their trilogy, but overall there’s several quality
wins including those over Mark Hunt and Stipe
Miocic. While the knockout of Velasquez was
stunning, perhaps Dos Santos’ most devastat-
ing KO came way back in 2008 in his UFC debut
when he blasted now-champ Fabricio Werdum
right out of the UFC. He’s got a big target to hit
in Mitrione. The ex-football player and former
TUF finalist has lost several key bouts along the
way, and probably has little chance for an upset.
Miocic has very quietly become a top-dog in the
division, though it’s quite conceivable that this
could be a first-round upset. Miocic has beat-
en the likes of Mark Hunt and Roy Nelson, but
that loss to Junior Dos Santos sticks out like a
sore thumb. In the past couple of years, Silva is
best-known for the spectacular brawl against
Hunt that ended in a draw. Yes, he’s lost bad-
ly since, but he’s still the guy that stunned the
world with his brutal TKO of Fedor Emelianenko
in 2011.
#1 Fabricio Werdum (20-5-1) vs. #16 Alexey Oliynyk
#2 Cain Velasquez vs. #15 Stefan Struve (26-7)
#3 Junior Dos Santos (17-3) vs. #14 Matt Mitrione (9-4)
#4 Stipe Miocic (13-2) vs. #13 Antonio Silva (19-7-1)
