Brazilian MMA star Fabricio Werdum reflects on how a major defeat to Alastair Overeem forced him to re-evaluate his approach and reinvigorate his career in a run that would eventually make him heavyweight champion.

Regarded by many as one of the best UFC heavyweight fighters of all time, back in 2010 Fabricio Werdum was the first fighter to decisively defeat Fedor Emelianenko in mixed martial arts. He also holds notable victories over Cain Velasquez, Alistair Overeem, Minotauro Nogueira, Mark Hunt, Travis Browne, Aleksander Emelianenko, Gabriel Gonzaga, Antônio Silva and Roy Nelson.

Following his triumph over Emelianenko, Werdum lost to Alistair Overeem. Here 'Vai Cavalo' (Go Horse) talks about recovering from that defeat with a vigor that saw him win six in a row, a run which took him to becoming UFC heavyweight champion in 2015.

To the residents of Huntington Beach, it's just another day.

The sun is shining, people are walking their dogs, children are playing on the street. It’s just your average Thursday in a Californian suburbia. However, right under their noses, something monumental is happening. Deep in their neighborhood resides a driven, hungry athlete more focused than ever before, and he’s readying himself for another grueling day of intense drilling and training. Why? To silence the critics who wrote him off, and to show everyone on Planet MMA, at least, he’s truly championship material. That athlete is Fabricio Werdum.

Every day before he goes to the gym, Werdum takes a moment to think about his surroundings. As he steps into his car, he reflects on the 10-year journey he's had in mixed martial arts. To say he's experienced incredible highs and frustrating lows would perhaps be more than an understatement. But things feel different now. It seems at 35 years old all those years of hard work are now coming together, and the potential he showed so early on in his career is returning with gusto.

As he walks into Kings MMA, he greets everyone with a warm hello and a wide grin on his face. He's in his element, his second home.

Not only are there numerous other world-class athletes at Kings, but this gym is also owned by the man who is his mentor, and head coach, Rafael Cordeiro. In fact, according to Werdum, if it wasn't for Cordeiro moving to the States four years ago, he might still be training in Brazil today.

“There are two reasons why I came to the US,” explains Werdum.“It was important there was a place to stay with my family. In Brazil, I lived in Curitiba and my family lived in Porto Alegre and the distance was too far.

“When Rafael came to live in the United States, I could manage two things: training with the best in the world and I could get together with my family. So everything changed at the time when I came to live here. The structure I have to prepare with – sponsors, training – it is crucial that a fighter has family support and I am able to do all of this here, where it is also a safe place to live and you feel esteemed as a professional.”

Looking back on the move, it clearly was not only smart for his personal life, but fantastic for his career, too. Since 2008, he's choked and submitted Fedor Emelianenko, TKO'd Gabriel Gonzaga, Brandon Vera, and Mike Russow, and convincingly smashed up Roy Nelson for three rounds – with his only losses coming against current champions: Junior Dos Santos in the UFC, and the former Strikeforce titleholder Alistair Overeem. 

Not bad for someone who only started training jiu-jitsu because he was pressured into it. “I began training jiu-jitsu because of a former girlfriend,” Werdum recalls. “Her ex-boyfriend trained jiu-jitsu and called me out in front of her to fight him, but I didn’t like jiu-jitsu and didn’t want to fight. Then he said, 'Let’s do it just a little to see how you do.’ He submitted me in five seconds with a triangle choke.”

It was this early encounter that would set Werdum off on a journey to BJJ supremacy. However, his love for jiu-jitsu would evolve into a fascination with mixed martial arts when he saw the likes of Wanderlei Silva and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira fighting in Pride. He wanted to follow his countrymen. He wanted to fight on the big stage.

And although he managed to accomplish his dream of fighting in Pride, the game has now changed. The UFC is the pinnacle of mixed martial arts and Werdum is one of only a handful of former Pride fighters who have managed to progress their styles to stay at the top. 

His grappling game remains one of the strongest in the heavyweight division, whilst his striking prowess is seemingly growing with every fight. But Werdum’s fight camp journey, like everyone else’s, starts with strength and conditioning. And he’s also pushing boundaries in that department, too. While most heavyweights are renowned for their lack of cardio, Werdum is trying to escape the stereotype by changing up his endurance training depending on what he's focusing on during the day.

“I get my cardio from my daily training. I have specific workouts with Rafael Cordeiro in Muay Thai, Cobrinha in jiu-jitsu and then I have a strong conditioning program,” he says. “I do sprints because I am too heavy to do long running. I also ride a bike instead of jogging, because 120kg is too much weight to carry. It affects the joints and back. I train at the legendary Gold’s Gym, with Jeff and John Harbot.

They’re the two strength and conditioning coaches who help me prepare. I lift weights and train cardio four days a week. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.”

And it's his weightlifting regime that has been one of the most important cogs in the recent growth of Werdum as a fighter. After his bout with Overeem, he blamed the loss on overtraining and the fact he just wasn't as strong as his opponent. Something he's subsequently worked diligently on with his training team.

“I've been doing a lot of bodybuilding workouts and I think it is really important,” he says. “At the moment I have been doing training to gain strength since I don’t have a fight coming up. In this very moment of my camp I’m developing my strength. I think bodybuilding and functional workouts are so important.”

It's been evident in his last few outings that this new strength-building regime has increased his power significantly and it has also complimented his striking skills, something Werdum has also noticed. “Everybody saw that my game on the feet improved a lot by doing bodybuilding. It's important to not only be technically good but also be very strong. What makes the biggest difference nowadays is the conditioning. I think everybody is at the same level and what will make the difference is the preparation. I believe 70% of a fight is conditioning.”

So how has Fabricio managed to pack on the pounds to supplement his bulk-building program? According to Werdum, he's had to bring a bit of Brazilian cuisine to the States to help him keep the muscle on. “I am a gaucho,” he says, “which means I'm a native of the south region of Brazil, so I have churrasco, which is barbecue, every weekend (laughs). Churrasco is what gives me strength. The power of a gaucho is in churrasco; so I eat a lot of meat.

“I also use MHP products. When I have a fight scheduled, I call the MHP guys and they create a different diet for me in which I have to eat at minimum five times a day. Along with these meals, there are supplements, but it’s difficult to follow for a long time.”

Although his striking is finally coming together, the one thing Werdum has always had in his arsenal is his superior grappling skills, and in a division that has very few technical submission artists, he's managed to use his jiu-jitsu expertise to his advantage. However, as we've seen with plenty of grapplers turned mixed martial artists, creating a striking game that compliments your grappling skills can be quite a frustrating experience. A conundrum Werdum sympathizes with.

“I always say it is very difficult and you have to have a big heart when you want to add striking or grappling to your game. It is up to every fighter to make the transition from jiu-jitsu or grappling to Muay Thai. It is tough because the person might not know that they like to brawl, but the moment they include brawling into their skillset their game is totally changed. For me, it was not so hard because I always like to brawl so it was good. It gave me more motivation because I became more attentive with this transition.”

Although he feels it's difficult to make the transition from striker to grappler, it's something he believes is necessary for a contemporary martial artist if they wish to make it in the modern world of mixed martial arts. “Times have changed,” he concedes. “Now everybody has evolved and so has martial arts. In the beginning, it was OK to have one martial art. But nowadays if you train only Muay Thai for instance, you’ll be passed by. If you train only jiu-jitsu, you’ll be passed by. It has to be a complete mix today because we’re experiencing a new era.”

And we've seen from his fight with Roy Nelson that Werdum has taken that philosophy on board. He could've taken Nelson down and attempted to go for a submission as soon as the opening bell rang, but he showed he can also stand and trade with his opponents, which should be no surprise considering he's a product of the legendary Chute Boxe Academy. 

Once upon a time, the Chute Boxe Academy had some of Brazil's best fighters among its ranks, including Wanderlei Silva, 'Shogun' Rua and, of course, Werdum. They were known for going full force during training. Knocking each other out whilst sparring wasn't a rarity. Times have changed, though, and Werdum admits he doesn't spar the way he did when he was training in Curitiba. It's just too dangerous nowadays, and at 35, he knows one mistimed blow could stop his resurgence short. However, there's one fighter in Kings MMA who does bring the old Chute Boxe training style out of him.

“There is a special guy, Satoshi Ishii,” Werdum says with a grin. “I know when I train with him it is going to be intense because Ishii likes to go 100% with me. I've noticed he goes average with the other guys, but when he comes at me I see in his eyes that he likes to train with me, so it is always 100% with him. Depending on the level of my sparring, I take it easy. But normally I train with professional sparring partners who are used to training hard.”

So what is the catalyst driving Werdum to reinvent himself as a fighter? What is the force behind the bodybuilding program, his middleweight-style cardio regime and his newfound proficiency as a striker.

According to Werdum, his devastating knockout loss to current UFC champ Dos Santos was the impetus that led to him re-evaluating his training.

Werdum explains: “I had never been submitted and had never been knocked out before I fought ‘Cigano,’ so now I wish to fight Cigano again, understand? Not for him, not for anything else, but for myself. This is not a weight on my shoulder, it is a desire I have to gain my revenge, to dedicate myself 100 percent, like he does.

“Today it is a new phase of my life and another phase of my career as well. I would like to show him and the world I am 100% and there are ups and downs. When I fought him, that was a horrible time in my life and I always say in my interviews that Cigano can't be blamed if I didn’t train properly for that fight and for the fact I was not focused, in good shape or whatever. He can't be blamed, he went there and played his role. In a way, I have to thank Cigano for playing his role. I will pave my own way step-by-step, not willing to go over nobody."

Afterword

The Cigano rematch is yet to happen. Meanwhile, in 2015 Fabricio defeated Cain Velasquez to become the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion. He lost the title to American Stipe Miocic a year later. He lost to Overeem for a second time in 2017 and currently holds a 23-8 record.

In January 2019, Werdum made headlines when he and a lifeguard rescued drowning teenagers at a beach near his home in Torrance, California.