Many expected Cain Velasquez to come back after nearly 2 years and continue his dominance of the UFC heavyweight division, but Fabricio Werdum had a different plan.
The Brazilian interim-UFC heavyweight champion had been slowly working his way up the ladder the past few years and seized his opportunity to grab the belt last year, so unifying the titles against a rusty Cain didn’t rattle him much.
He took it to the champ from the first bell and the fight was an all out brawl for two rounds. Then in the 3rd round Cain tried a takedown on Werdum and that’s where the Jiu-Jitsu black belt took over.
His quick grappling skills were too much for Cain to defend and similar to Werdum’s win over Fedor, he had overcome a champion via submission.
The MMA world was shocked but in hindsight they shouldn’t have been. Werdum has been healthy for the past two years and fighting. Cain had been oft-injured and watching.
It’ll take Cain a few fights to regain his rhythm and the rematch should be even better than last night’s fight.