Fabricio Werdum Vs Cain Velasquez 1 Should Be Seen As An Optical Illusion

Even though Fabricio Werdum was able to submit Cain Velasquez at UFC 188, this should be seen as an optical illusion when we go to preview the second fight. This is because when we look back at the first round of the first fight , Cain Velasquez was constantly able to land his overhand right and left jab because Fabricio Werdum had his hands located by his waist which leaves his face wide open to be hit. The Momentum of the fight started to tilt towards Werdum with about 1:30 left in the first round, when Velasquez started to decrease his striking output due to fatigue from not competing in about nineteen months and the altitude of Mexico City. For the next round and a half, Cain Velasquez was trying to regain and/or preserve the amount of energy he had left by standing in front of Werdum and picking spots where he wanted to increase his striking output. This strategy would immediately backfire on Velasquez because it allowed Werdum to constantly throw his left jab,straight right and right knee from the clinch with minimal resistance from Velasquez. Until the third round, when Cain decided to use his wrestling because he realized that he was out of energy and getting beat up striking with Werdum which led to him getting caught by a guillotine choke.

 Going into their second fight, one would assume that we will see what happened early in the first round throughout the fight. This is because Cain Velasquez will be able to maintain his cardio for a longer period of time since he will not have to deal with the altitude of Mexico City and a long layoff between fights. As a result, Cain Velasquez will be able to maintain his striking output throughout the fight which will allow him to use his overhand right and left jab to beat up Werdum on the feet throughout the fight. If Werdum tries to compete with Velasquez in striking exchanges he will most likely lose because his strikes take longer to get to the target than Velasquez strikes do. The only way Werdum wins the second fight is if he can get the fight to the ground and submit Cain Velasquez but we know that Velasquez with more of a gas tank will try to avoid that at all cost.