This will be one of those events where you remember where you were at when Fedor lost for the first time. I will admit that I was somewhat shocked at this but not as much as some people will inevitably be by this result. I am more stunned by the mental mistakes that Fedor made, mistakes that he normally does not make.

On to the fight:

The fight opened with some jockeying from both fighters – in other words, a typical opening round in a Fedor fight. Fedor threw, what I thought, was a five punch combination. Fedor’s punches did seem to be a bit more wider than normal and honestly NONE of Fedor’s punches landed clean on Fabricio Werdum. It looked like Werdum actually fell on to his back as more of a defensive position rather than actually being hurt by any punch.

Fedor jumped into Werdum’s guard and begun throwing hammer fist punches and some good straight punches but ultimately fell into Werdum’s full guard. Fedor managed to get out of a very tight armbar attempt by Werdum but fell right into a Werdum’s triangle. Fedor’s began to thrash around to try and get out but Werdum had it cinched in and Fedor’s head began to turn red and ultimately tapped out as there was no way out.

Analysis:

I personally felt that Fedor made a mental mistake against Werdum. Werdum is a BJJ guy first and foremost. What it seemed like to me is that when Fedor saw Werdum go down from his opening punch combination, Fedor thought that Werdum was hurt and tried to go in for the kill. Fedor should have backed off and re-thought the situation and allowed Werdum to stand back up as Werdum was not hurt at all. Perhaps this was Werdum’s strategy? To fall down on your back when Fedor throws his combinations and hope he falls into Werdum’s guard.

I think people will read more into this fight than they need to. I still do not think that Werdum beats Fedor in a rematch. Werdum’s win was good but he took advantage of an unusually over-aggressive Fedor. I do not think that Werdum beats Overeem due to Overeem’s power and quickness.

If Fedor fights Werdum again – what do you think the result will be? If Werdum fights Overeem, do you see Werdum beating Overeem?

-Dustin Garrido