Fan Opinion: Fedor vs Werdum In-depth preview
A lot of hype is surrounding the upcoming bout between Fedor and Werdum in Strikeforce on June 26th. Mainly because most people believe that Fedor should be fighting ‘Top class’ opponents. A comment I’m sure Werdum might take with offense. The truth is in the fight game fighters aren’t always matched up with the opponents the fans most want to see them against, although inevitably most superfights eventually do happen somewhere down the line. For the mean time though here is my take on the Fedor vs Werdum bout.
We all know about Fedor, his record is 32-1-1NC. His only ‘loss’ coming due to a cut which he avenged later in his career. He has 9 knockouts and 16 submissions (twice as much as werdum) to his credit. With many top ranked names on Fedor’s win list he has fought a long and exciting career through Pride, Rings, Affliction and most recently signing for Strikeforce after UFC negotiations collapsed. His most recent win was a stunning second round knockout over Brett Rogers after suffering a broken nose from the first punch.
His opponent , Werdum, holds a record of 13-4 with 4 knockouts and 7 submissions. Notable victories include TKO wins over Brandon Vera, Gabriel Gonzaga (twice), he also holds submission wins over Mike Kyle, Aleksander Emelianenko, Roman Zentsov and none other than Alistair Overeem. So people may want to think before shrugging off Fabricio as a no name fighter that was hand picked.
Records aside I think we may have a very good fight between the two men. I think Fedor may want to keep it standing but he is also no slouch on the ground with 16 submissions to his credit he is very able to hold his own. Werdum obviously has good stand up game but his bread and butter is the ground game, with great submissions that have seen him take out Fedor’s younger brother and the current Strikeforce Heavyweight champ, Whom many have picked as the one to end Fedor’s unbeaten streak. So where this fight will end up is anyones guess, but I think overall Fedor will prevail, most probably via TKO or submission like his last 10 fights.
The obvious match up for Fedor IF he wins this bout would be against Alistair Overeem, a match that many have been waiting years to see and which has the potential to be fight of the year, or better. Overeem has publicly said he will fight Fedor , even calling Fedor out after his ‘Demolition’ of Rogers. So lets hope that Fedor can best Werdum and we get to see the Demolition Man square off against The Last Emperor.
