Roy Nelson vs Fabricio Werdum

by Dr. Octagon, J.D.

Fabricio Werdum comes out in an Acai hat to some lady singing in Portugese over an accordion. I had a client once that had to declare bankruptcy because he was screwed in an acai-related pyramid scheme. It’s the snake oil of the 21st century. Tastes like garbage too.

Big Country Roy Nelson comes out to “Born in the USA.” He has a sweet, battle-ready ponytail and grey beard. Nelson looking positively slender. He must not care for Burger King’s new fries.

Round 1-The “USA” chant it already going. Werdum throws a kick. Roy comes in and Werdum has his back immediately. Jeez. Four minutes to go. Nelson stands up. Wow,  nice defense against a guy who is way bigger. Big Country takes a knee as he stands up, but lands an uppercut in the clinch. 

Werdum is landing a ton of knees and lighting Nelson up. Did not see that coming. Nelson looks totally tired already. He needs to create some distance. Referee Rosenthal breaks them up and calls for the doctor to look at Nelson’s cut. Nelson is loving the ability to catch some wind. He’s hoping Rosenthal will stop the fight a few more times.

Roy throws a big right that puts Werdum on his ass, then falls into Werudm’s guard. Werdum goes for the submission, but doesn’t get it. Roy should let him stand. Werdum is really strong and his guard is very dangerous. More chants of “USA”.  Werdum comes in with a nice knee and misses a wheel kick to end the round.

10-9 Werdum. Watching the knees in slow motion, Big Country has quite the chin. He needs to stay out of the clinch.

Round 2-Werdum looks totally gassed. The longer this fight goes on, the more of a chance Roy Nelson has. Werdum lands a big knee. Roy lands a leg kick. Roy lands a left. Roy lands a nice right. Werdum is coming foward and Roy lands another shot. Roy lands an uppercut, but eats another knee.

Both fighters are out of shape and sucking wind, not even halfway through the second round. Roy is landing some shots. Fighters exchange and Roy lands the better shot. This is awful. Both fighters look totally spent. Roy lands a big right hand. Werdum got caught, but he’s able to circle away.

10-9 Werdum. Fabricio’s striking looks way better than I thought it would.

Round 3-Werdum shoots and Roy goes for the standing guillotine. Werdum gets out of it. Werdum throws a combo and lands the knee at the end. Roy pushes him up against the cage. Werdum gets the clinch and lands a big knee. Werdum is teeing off on Nelson.

Roy getting murdered. Werdum lands a nice front kick. Big Country throws the overhand right, but it doesn’t land. He’s out of gas at this point. Roy needs to push it, but he’s too out of shape to mount any offense. Werdum is landing a lot of punches. Werdum has this won. Roy’s still not putting on any offense. He’s just so tired.

Werdum’s striking looked great and Roy Nelson was tired about two-thirds of the way through the first round. I clearly didn’t see that coming. Nelson looked terrible. He can take a beating, but he’s so out of shape it doesn’t matter. I really hoped that he would have improved his conditioning.

Judges score it unanimously 30-27 for Werdum.