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UFC 188: Velasquez vs Werdum
By: Freddy Wander - StatFox
Published: 6/13/2015  at  6:19:00 AM
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UFC 188: Velasquez vs Werdum

Saturday, June 13th – 10:00 p.m. ET
Mexico City, Mexico

Cain Velasquez (13-1-0) vs. Fabricio Werdum (19-5-1)

Five Round Heavyweight Title Fight
Line: N/A

Cain Velasquez will make his return to the octagon and attempt to hold onto his heavyweight title when he faces interim title holder, Fabricio Werdum, at UFC 188 in Mexico City.

Velasquez is a knockout machine and has twice been the title holder for the heavyweight belt with a mere one loss in his career. That came against Junior dos Santos by knockout in just over a minute in late 2011 when he lost the title, but quickly regained it from dos Santos a little over a year later when he went the full five rounds and won via unanimous decision. After that he was able to defend twice, coming away victorious by knockout (punches) each time. That last win, another defeat of Junior dos Santos, was in October of 2013 and he has been out of the circuit after surgery on a torn meniscus since then. Velasquez was a Division I wrestler at Arizona State University and has used his skills learned there to get 11 knockouts in his 13 career wins. His return will be a tough one as he faces the interim heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum who has been the victor in each of his last five fights. In that time he has two unanimous decisions, one submission (armbar) and he won the interim heavyweight belt in his last match after a TKO (flying knee and punches) in the second round. Each of the five most recent wins have come since his return to the UFC as he was once in the circuit between 2007 and 2008 when he went 2-2 with both of his wins coming by knockout punches. The 37-year-old Brazilian native has a ton of experience in multiple arenas, winning gold medals at the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships, IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championships and the Pan-American Jiu-Jitsu Championships. This will be a battle of two veterans of the sport and it will be interesting to see if Velasquez is able to continue his dominance that he showed before suffering his injury.

Velasquez has been nearly unbeatable in his career as evidenced both by his knockouts and average fight time of just 7:06. His utter disregard for opponents has led to an astounding 6.1 significant strikes per minute as 58% of his attempts are landing. In two of his three most recent matches, Velasquez has actually been taken the full five rounds by his opponent, but has landed a total of 234 significant strikes compared to a meager 103 by his opposition. Overall, his defense has been great, with others getting in a miniscule 1.66 significant strikes per minute in the fights despite doing so at a high percentage (61%). This shows just how often he is in control with his barrage of attacks, not even allowing his opponent to get in opportunities. It certainly doesn’t stop there when talking about how solid of a fighter Velasquez is as he averages an incredible 5.28 takedowns per 15 minutes in the octagon and when he faced dos Santos at UFC 155, he landed 111 significant strikes and added 11 takedowns. He does not always get his opposition on the mat, though, with a mere 44% takedown percentage, but barely ever goes down with a mark of 88% with his defense and has not been taken down since facing Brock Lesnar at UFC 121 in late 2010. Nine of his 14 career fights have ended with a win in the first round and it will be a surprise if some of that does not come out despite the recent surgery.

Werdum has been nowhere as aggressive as his counterpart in this fight, landing 3.05 significant strikes per minute in the ring with half of his attempts hitting their mark. In his last three fights, he was able to out-strike his opposition 174-84 and defeated them with a different tactic each time. Despite being taken down once against Mark Hunt in his last match, Werdum was able to have 11 of his 21 significant strikes to land on Hunt’s head and earned “Performance of the Night” honors with his knockout via flying knee. He doesn’t typically take too much of a beating in the ring, allowing 1.90 significant strikes against him per minute on 58% accuracy. Werdum has used his past experiences to be one of the best in the circuit in submissions and takedowns, averaging 1.4 submission attempts and 1.83 takedowns each 15 minutes in the octagon. The 6’4”, 231-pound beast of a man is a better tactical fighter when it comes to technical ability compared to Velasquez, but may not be able to match him in strength and speed over the five rounds.


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