Fabricio Werdum Headed To American Top Team To Prepare For Cain Velasquez

UFC Heavyweight contender Fabricio Werdum is headed for the biggest opportunity of his MMA career when he faces champion Cain Velasquez sometime next year.

Werdum has looked unstoppable as of late, blending a lethal mix of world champion-level Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills with a rapidly improving striking game learned from his muay-thai instructor and head coach Rafael Cordeiro.

‘Vai Cavalo’ was last seen submitting former Pride champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in the main event of June’s UFC on Fuel TV 10. However, Velasquez also destroyed Nogueira with ease and is obviously going to present a different and much stiffer test for Werdum.

That’s why Cordeiro thinks it’s time to switch up Werdum’s training. He recently told Sherdog that Werdum is headed to American Top Team in Florida to train with Steve Mocco, a former Olympic wrestler who defeated Velasquez in college:

“We’re going to do totally different than what Junior (dos Santos) did. We believe Cain is a tough dude, everybody knows that. We’re going to do everything different. We’re going to work Fabricio’s conditioning and training. Fabricio has amazing jiu-jitsu, amazing muay-thai. But we want to figure out something different for this camp. We’re going to bring good guys to train with them.”

“So, probably we’re going to move to Florida to train with the guy who beat Velasquez a couple of times; I think it’s going to be different for Fabricio. It makes all the sense that we train with him (Steve Mocco) for this fight. He knows Cain Velasquez’s game, and we’re going to do everything we can to prepare Fabricio for war. Fabricio has his mentality strong, he knows what he wants and we know what he can do. It’s time to make the dream come true.”

Indeed Mocco may know some of Velasquez’ tendencies but wrestling and MMA are two entirely different things altogether. Werdum definitely has the right idea of training wrestling because it’s the one glaring area where Velasquez holds an advantage over him.

The champ also probably has an edge in overall striking but the gap isn’t as big as their difference in wrestling. Velasquez has never come close to being submitted before.

However, you can bet Werdum will be looking to lull him into a false sense of security. He did just that to end the legendary Fedor Emelianenko‘s incredible ten-year unbeaten streak in 2010. ‘Vai Cavalo’ won’t be scared if and when this fight goes to the ground.

But maybe he should be.

Velasquez has shown one of the most dangerous and grinding top control games in MMA right now. Never was his dominance on display more than in his vicious throttling of former champ dos Santos at October’s UFC 166. Will Werdum’s new training tactics be enough to avoid the same fate as ‘Cigano?’