UFC Heavyweight Champion Fabricio Werdum captured that title with a third round guillotine choke submission over Cain Velasquez at UFC 188. Now that they’re slated to fight again at UFC 196, Werdum appears to be calling his shot
In an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour last week, Werdum gave out a warning to the former champ ahead of their Feb. 6 rematch.
“And now, just asking Cain Velasquez, be careful with the right arm, it’s my specialty,” Werdum said. “Don’t come inside my guard, please, because, hey, be careful with the right arm.”
Werdum’s got supreme confidence in himself ahead of the second matchup – understandably so given how the first fight played out – and though he’s expecting a strong fight from Velasquez at UFC 196, he also expects to prevail once again.
“The rematch, he [will] come very strong again,” Werdum said. “I think I have more confident this time. I think he come very good, for sure, 100 percent, but I beat him again, man. I’m not [cocky], you know, I’m just confident in my training. I’m confident in Kings MMA.
“I think it’s a good rematch, for sure. It’s the big show, but I don’t go inside the cage like ‘I lost this fight.’ I visualize everything. When I go inside the cage, when I fight with him, and after that, the interview with Joe Rogan, I visualize everything. I have everything in my mind.”
Penick’s Analysis: Werdum’s one of the all time greats in terms of submission fighters in MMA, and seeing how that first fight played out makes it very easy to believe he could catch something on Velasquez again in the second fight. That fight wound up being entirely one-sided, and it wasn’t simply because of the layoff or the altitude issue in Mexico City. Werdum’s fighting at his highest level right now, and has rounded out his game to the point where he’s becoming as dangerous on the feet as he’s been on the ground. However, it’s that ground game that remains as a huge edge for him, and if Velasquez starts trying to make it a ground battle, he’ll find himself in trouble once again.
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