Tomorrow night / early Sunday morning brings us the return of the Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez from an injury lay off of since an October 2013 win over Junior Dos Santos in their 3rd fight...taking him to 2-1 over JDS and was a 4th straight win & 2nd straight defence of the belt he took from JDS.
Cain looked rusty after his last injury lay off which was after the Brock Lesnar fight in which he first won the HW Title, and was beaten by JDS by KO in about a minute of the first round.
Will he be as rusty this time, against less of a puncher and more of a ground man in Werdum who has numerous world jiu jitsu titles and submission titles.
Werdum has won 5 straight and is 8-2 since losing to JDS on JDS's debut with UFC at UFC 90.
In that time he has beat some very good opposition, including submission of the year against Fedor Emelianenko in Strikeforce!
Cain last 5:
Win - JDS - Oct 2013
Win - Bigfoot - May 2013
Win - JDS - December 2012
Win - Bigfoot - May 2012
Loss - JDS - Nov 2011
Werdum last 5:
Win - Mark Hunt - Nov 2014
Win - Travis Browne - Apr 2014
Win - Big Nog - June 2013
Win - Mike Russow - June 2012
Win - Big Country - Feb 2012
Cain will not hide his game plan...get in his face...get him on the floor and pummel his head in.
Werdum will not hide his plan either...stay away from the hammer fists and try to submit the champ from his back or get the switch on a adrenaline filled champ and submit him from the top.
Can Cain break the "curse of the HW title" and defend for a 3rd straight time???
My prediction - Cain TKO round 3.
What are your predictions?
Rest of the card:
Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum for unified heavyweight title
Eddie Alvarez vs. Gilbert Melendez
Kelvin Gastelum vs. Nate Marquardt
Yair Rodriguez vs. Charles Rosa
Angela Hill vs. Tecia Torres
Prelims
Chico Camus vs. Henry Cejudo
Drew Dober vs. Efrain Escudero
Alejandro Perez vs. Patrick Williams
Johnny Case vs. Francisco Trevino
Augusto Montano vs. Cathal Pendred
Gabriel Benitez vs. Clay Collard
Im also expecting Melendez & Alvarez to be a war. Fight of the night and a win for Gil.
UFC 188 - The Heavyweight Title
posted on 12/6/15
Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum for unified heavyweight title - Cain 50-45
Eddie Alvarez vs. Gilbert Melendez - Melendez tko 2
Kelvin Gastelum vs. Nate Marquardt - Gastelum 30-27
Angela Hill vs. Tecia Torres - Tecia tko 1
posted on 13/6/15
Cain round 4 TKO win.
Melendez win on decision, 29-28.
Gastelum submission win, round 2.
posted on 13/6/15
Cain is the favevorite, his stamina will serve him well as Werdum constantly goes for the takedown. Werdum will be overrun and taken out by the 3rd.
posted on 14/6/15
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 14/6/15
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 15/6/15
Guv agreed mate
As soon as I watched the build up I wasn't sure on Cain...Mexico City is a tough place to fight if you aren't acclimatised to it.
Added to that the performance after his last lay off...I just couldn't bring myself to back against him as I thought the fight would take place on the ground with him on top.
One of his biggest strengths is his "welterweight-like" stamina.
I think if he stays fit for the next 12 months, he'll come back as good as he was before this...but keeping him fit is easier said than done by the looks of things.
Take nothing away from Werdum, he looked good and did exactly what he had to do.
Rumours of Werdum V Arlovski next. Who would have thought that 12 months ago
This gives people like Miocic, JDS, Overeem a big chance at the gold in my opinion now...I didn't see any of them beating a fully fit/un-rusty Cain to be perfectly honest.
Wide open divisions are fun. The HW is very rarely dominated by 1 bloke for a long period.