What to look for at UFC on Fuel TV: Werdum vs. Nogueira

What: UFC on Fuel TV: Fabricio Werdum vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at Ginasio Paulo Sarasate in Fortaleza, Brazil.

When: Saturday June 8th at 8:00 P.M.                                                             

Network: Check the event’s name. Genius. 

Main event: This fight is the ending to the most recent season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) Brazil. The season has ended, and Werdum and Big Nog look to go at it in a rematch of their fight back in 2006. In that scrap Nog was a bit better on the feet and stayed out of trouble on the mat to take a unanimous decision in a somewhat competitive fight. However, this fight will probably go down a bit differently.

Each fighter has changed since that match up seven years ago. Werdum has gotten even better on the mat to the point that he is easily the best submission grappler in the UFC heavyweight division. He has also raised his striking to a more than commendable level, and routinely gets the better of striking exchanges with seasoned vets. Werdum’s a hot commodity right now, and will most likely get a fight with a top 3 level opponent if he beats “Minotauro” Saturday night. Nogueira is a bit of a different story.

The former PRIDE and UFC champion is on the down side of his distinguished career (although he is only a year older than Fabricio). He has rotated wins and losses for his last six fights, and is coming off a submission of the night win against Dave Herman last October. He has looked a bit slower when trying to pull the trigger, and can’t take as much punishment as he used to (although he still has the game to stop or sub pretty much anybody). Since his wins have all come against pretty good competition he’s probably not on the verge of retiring, but he will need a good performance this Saturday to keep competing against high level fighters. If not, its been a great career. And having your last fight against a possible future title challenger wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

Fight to keep your eye on: Erick Silva vs. Jason High

Silva is a top tier prospect that is as violent as it gets, and is looking to come back from a deflating loss to the next World Series of Fighting’s welterweight champion Jon Fitch. Before his loss to Fitch he was riding a wave of momentum few get in their first couple years in the UFC. He’s a threat wherever the fight takes place with the only hole being a possible stamina problem (stemming from his performance against Fitch). His performance against High should let us know if the beating Jon gave him has developed any lingering.

Jason is himself a bit of an enigma. He’s dominated regional level competition since a loss to Charlie Brenneman in his last UFC appearance, and even went 3-0 in Strikeforce before they closed their doors in January. He’s an extremely effective grappler, and could look to impose his ground game on Silva with his good wrestling background.

Guaranteed fireworks: Feijao vs. Silva

Neither of these guys know how to have a boring fight. Both have extreme power, and with their drug histories could even be on a little bit extra come fight time. Each guy has had great hype behind them in the past, and they both are looking to regain that steam to make a run at the top of the light-heavyweight division. With as much power as both carry, its basically whoever lands clean first.

Most interested viewer: Daniel Cormier

He has called out the winner of the main event, and apparently is not planning to acclimate himself to the 205 lb division before calling out Jon Jones (even as he continues to call him out).