Werdum Strikes Back At The Critics

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Imagine beating who many people considered the greatest heavyweight fighter and one of the best PP fighters in the world, then being told it was just because of the thin air.

That’s UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum’s world. He dispatched Cain Velasquez in Mexico at UFC 188 in brutal fashion, busting him up with big punches, then ending it with a guillotine choke. Still, fans have their reason and excuses for why Werdum looked so dominant.

During and right after the fight, many pointed to the altitude as a main factor for Velasquez’s out-of-the-orindary performance. This isn’t a far fetched excuse, but a lot of fans go so far as to say that it was the only reason Werdum won the fight.

So how does the champ feel about that? He told MMAFighting:

“Fans will always try to find something to talk about. Everybody saw this fight, they are not blind. I dominated him completely. If Cain didn’t go to altitude earlier, that’s not my problem. I was not going to call him and say ‘Cain, you have to come earlier because the altitude will affect you a lot’. I believe there were a lot of reasons, actually: the altitude, the fact that I wanted it so bad, that he hasn’t fought for a while, but his coach said he was in great shape and would give him a worse beating than he gave ‘Cigano’, so I knew he wasn’t confident. I wanted the belt so bad, and I won it.

“The altitude helped me, of course, but that was part of my strategy as well. That’s why I went early to Mexico, stayed there for 40 days, and showed the world I was better than him. It wasn’t easy, we literally fought hard, but I had a better strategy with master Rafael Cordeiro. Some people said I could have finished him in the second round, but that was part of my strategy. I knew I was going to finish him with a guillotine. Wrestlers always escape from the thai clinch with takedowns, so I knew that was going to happen

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