Issue 067
November 2010
Two years ago Fabricio Werdum (14-4-1) was abruptly cut by the UFC. Today he’s the king of the world. How did he beat Fedor Emelianenko? FO fills you in.
Fabricio Werdum is positively gleeful. Possessing a claim to being the world’s number one heavyweight will do that for a man.
Typically no one gave the Brazilian a chance against the fan-consensus world’s best heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko. Understandable considering that until June 23 2010 Fedor was unbeaten in open combat for his entire ten-year MMA career. It was a single tap by the Russian, due to a combined triangle and armbar only one minute and nine seconds into the first round of their Strikeforce battle in San Jose, California, that signaled the changing of the guard. “I’m happy, not only because I proved what I can do, but because it was a dream that came true,” gushes Fabricio, a former student of the famous Chute Boxe Academy in Curitiba, Brazil.
To tie the fabled Fedor Emelianenko in a submission so soon into their heavyweight tilt, with all the hype and build-up, must have been almost surreal. What could have been going through Werdum’s mind? “The first thing was that I couldn’t lose that position and miss my chance to win the fight,” he reveals. “I knew it was Fedor and that made me look at the submission with more attention so I could apply the technique perfectly. I knew that any mistake was going to let him out, so if you watch the fight you will be able to see that I check every detail before I finish him.”
It’s ironic the triangle has become the Porto Alegre-born 33-year-old’s career highlight (albeit powered-up with the armbar). After all, it’s the same submission that catalyzed his entrance into Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and thus MMA. In January 1998 a 20-year-old untrained Werdum was choked unconscious during a fight with his then-girlfriend’s ex. The move? A triangle, of course. “The day after, I started training jiu-jitsu at Marcio Corleta Gym,” laughs Fabricio. He became obsessed with the sport, dropped his job and took to the mats every day. He developed rapidly and by 2000 had won his first BJJ world title as a blue belt. By the time he made his professional MMA debut in 2002, Fabricio had a Pan American world title, this time at purple belt. Four more have followed since.
Fabricio’s jiu-jitsu skills have provided him with more than just medals and trophies. In 2004 they supplied him a plane ticket to Croatia. The reason: to train knockout-dealing kickboxer Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ in the subtle art of jiu-jitsu. “Ken Imai was his manager at that time,” explains Werdum, “and one day he called me to offer me the contract with Pride, and in that contract I had to train for four months with Mirko. After the four months Mirko invited me to stay and I continued to train with him for two years. That was a very good time and I learned a lot from him.” The Brazilian went 4-2-0 in Japan but, despite being in the same promotion as Fedor, he didn’t receive a match-up with the man who has now elevated him to MMA immortality.
However, not everyone accepts the sudden rise of ‘Vai Cavalo’, which awkwardly translates to ‘Go Horse’ – a common term of encouragement in Brazil. Being a dropout of the UFC, the world’s biggest and most expectant MMA organization, doesn’t aid the jiu-jitsu specialist’s case. He opened his four-fight UFC tenure with a lackluster decision loss to Andrei Arlovski at UFC 70 in 2007. Then despite stopping Gabriel Gonzaga (only one fight removed from his unsuccessful heavyweight title fight with Randy Couture) and Brandon Vera within the first rounds, a powerful uppercut from a debuting Junior Dos Santos knocked Werdum out and saw his release from the company. Harsh considering he had chalked 2-2 for the company – Keith Jardine had to drop four fights in a row before he got his walking papers.
But, by conquering ‘The Last Emperor’ Werdum can claim, on a technicality, to be the ‘true’ heavyweight champion of the world in spite of the UFC. By tracing a lineage from a weight class’s first champion and then assuming his next conqueror to be the successor to the title (regardless of physical belts and organizations) it’s possible to work out who is the ‘linear’ champion. Essentially: the person who beats the champ becomes the champ. If the first heavyweight title holder were Ken Shamrock due to his superfight title win over Dan Severn at UFC 6, and the formula was followed to today, by a strange twist of fate Fabricio Werdum’s win over Fedor would indeed make him the heavyweight champion of the world. However, since Emelianenko’s 2005 victory over Mirko Cro Cop, the Russian’s reputation has been tarnished due to a string of lesser opposition that ranged from freakshow fights with the under-skilled yet vertically or horizontally gifted, to dances with fading former UFC champions.
But then being number one, two or even three doesn’t matter much to Werdum, who now trains out of the little-known King’s MMA in Huntington Beach, California. Although, reaching these new heights does come with benefits. Fabricio says: “I’m very proud to appear in the top of the world at my weight class; it makes me work harder and gives me more energy to wake up every day and go to the gym.”
For the rest of his life, Fabricio ‘Vai Cavalo’ Werdum will have his name linked to Fedor ‘The Last Emperor’ Emelianenko. But that’s fine, he’s just ecstatic it’s him in the history books.
