It’s been nearly two years since UFC fans last saw their heavyweight champion in action.
That would be a long time on the sideline for any professional athlete, but to gain real perspective on the curious career trajectory of Cain Velasquez, let the following fun fact sink in:
The last time Velasquez fought somebody besides Junior dos Santos or Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva it was 2010, and his opponent was Brock Lesnar.
When Velasquez takes the cage against Fabricio Werdum on Saturday at UFC 188, it’ll amount to more than just an opportunity to get proof of life on the 265-pound champ. It will also be a chance for the man we’ve considered the best heavyweight in the world for the past five years running to show he’s still who we all assume him to be.
You couldn’t blame fans for wondering and, clearly, the UFC is almost out of patience with Velasquez. When his latest injury forced him out of a scheduled meeting with Werdum at UFC 180 last November, the powers that be inserted Mark Hunt in his place and put an interim title on Werdum after he won by second-round TKO.
Leading up to UFC 188, company executives also made it known that any further delays could cause Velasquez to be stripped outright. For his part, Werdum said he wasn’t buying Velasquez’s latest withdrawal, accusing the champion of trying to slow the Brazilian’s momentum by overplaying the injury.
“To be honest, I don't think his last injury was that serious, I think it was more of a strategy,” Werdum told Brazil’s Porot do Vale Tudo recently (translation via Bloody Elbow’s Lucas Rezende). “I don't think he wasn't able to walk or had to go under emergency surgery. It's just my opinion, nobody told me that. I think he did it in order to slow me down a little because he saw I really wanted it—and I still do."
Werdum’s frustrations—and the UFC’s pragmatism—are easy to understand. Velasquez’s title reign has endured so many health-related interruptions that, coupled with his three-fight series with Dos Santos and two bouts against Silva, it’s been tough for the division to maintain much momentum.
At this point, our conception of Velasquez as the world’s best heavyweight is based largely on theory. We believe him to be the best because he’s the UFC champion and because—aside from being unexpectedly knocked out by Dos Santos back in November 2011—he’s looked like the prototype for the future of 265-pounds.
Velasquez is mobile and wickedly athletic, especially by the standard we grew accustomed to during the heavyweight class’ formative years. He’s impeccably cross-trained in wrestling and striking, and his conditioning allows him to set a pace that very few fighters his size (and larger) can match over the course of five rounds.
He is, simply put in the parlance of our times, a beast.
But at this point, his recent resume is starting to feel a little narrow.
It’s hard to believe, but true: Velasquez has only fought two members of the current heavyweight Top 10—Dos Santos (No. 2) and Ben Rothwell (No. 9). Meanwhile, a modest new crop of contenders has taken root. Young guns like Stipe Miocic and Travis Browne are bringing new blood to the Top Five, while stalwart veterans like Werdum and Andrei Arlovksi are enjoying personal renaissances.
The heavyweight division is still fairly shallow and mighty long in the tooth, but at least there is a handful of challengers suddenly waiting to provide Velasquez with fresh tests.
That’s one of the things that makes this title unification bout with Werdum so important and so interesting. Aside from the fact that it’s the most compelling heavyweight bout in the MMA landscape at the moment, it’s important for Velasquez to show that at 32 years old, he hasn’t lost a step.
He’s been pretty insulated during the past five years, defeating Dos Santos twice in hard-fought bouts and plowing through a pair of cakewalks against Silva. The old MMA cliche is that style makes fights, and we just haven’t seen Velasquez against a very diverse assortment of styles since he won the title from Lesnar way back at UFC 121.
Werdum, meanwhile, could present a unique and halfway-compelling puzzle.
The 37-year-old jiu jitsu master is too deep into a late career resurgence for it to be called anything but extraordinary. Since getting run out of the UFC by Dos Santos back in 2008, he’s put up a remarkable 8-1 record that includes a stunning upset over Fedor Emelianenko, a 5-0 return to the Octagon and now an interim championship.
His complement of world-class BJJ and burgeoning muay thai skills could make him a dangerous matchup for a champion setting foot in the Octagon for the first time in 20 months. On paper, Velasquez has many of the advantages—speed, wrestling, cardio—but we’ve learned the hard way not to underestimate Werdum during the past few years.
A betting man would probably put the smartest money down on Velasquez, but there are still significant question marks surrounding his return.
For the UFC champion, beating Werdum comes with the primary goal of unifying his own title.
However, a secondary objective might be to remind us all exactly who he is, and replace some of those question marks with exclamation points.
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