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12:53 a.m. ET Mike Sloan: Dana White mocked Fedor when he was tapped by Werdum because, he said, Werdum wasn't even a top UFC contender at all. Now look at him.
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12:50 a.m. ET Jordan Breen: No, I said he's already one of the 10 best. Now you could call him arguably the best. Prior to tonight, I would've said Fedor Emelianenko, Cain Velasquez and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira were the greatest, in that order. Werdum has now beat them all. Tapped them all. He is a king.
12:46 a.m. ET Mike Sloan: Jordan, in
your lead-in to this fight a little while ago, you mentioned that
if Werdum would win, he'd be among the top 10 heavyweights ever. I
thought that was a bit of a stretch, but after watching him
dismantle Cain in such dominating fashion, I think you're onto
something. Day-um he was impressive tonight!
12:46 a.m. ET Jordan Breen: After getting tagged up some more, Velasquez shoots straight into a fight-ending guillotine. Fabricio Werdum is your undisputed UFC heavyweight champion and hell, maybe arguably the most accomplished heavyweight in MMA history, too. What an incredible performance in destroying a potent champion.
12:43 a.m. ET Mike Sloan: New champion, no? Cain is getting torn to shreds. He's gassed and wobbly. It's almost as if he is trying to set the record for most punches taken to the face in a UFC title fight.
12:42 a.m. ET Jordan Breen: Even if you think it's silly to have a heavyweight title fight at 7200 feet above sea level, you could never imagine the impact it would have on Velasquez, who has long been the fittest heavyweight in the game, and probably ever. Werdum looks like a genius talking about Velasquez not being prepared for fighting in Mexico City at this altitude. More importantly, Werdum is dauntless. Even though Velasquez is coming forward and still scoring, Werdum is landing heavy punch volume and now, crushing knees. Velasquez's chin is incredible, but this fight is turning into a violent, bloody crapshoot. It's fantastic.
12:35 a.m. ET Mike Sloan: Too bad the Wilder-Molina fight wasn't this action-packed from the start. There's no way both of these dudes last the full five rounds.
12:23 a.m. ET Jordan Breen: For all of that, it's still very possible that Velasquez comes out in full woodchipper mode, bobbing and weaving, smashing Werdum with hooks and uppercuts then mauling him in the clinch within minutes. I'm eager to see a contentious, back-and-forth heavyweight title challenge, but Velasquez's volume of violence in the cage is unprecedented.
12:19 a.m. ET Jordan Breen: It's main event time. Cain Velasquez defends his UFC title for the third time against interim champion Fabricio Werdum. Most importantly, for the first time since winning his first UFC title from Brock Lesnar in October 2010, Velasquez isn't fighting Junior dos Santos or Antonio Silva. Even though Velasquez is a stern favorite, Werdum is probably one of the 10 best heavyweights in MMA history and has had a spectacular run over the last five years. It's exactly the sort of achievement Velasquez needs to further move toward being unanimously considered the greatest heavyweight ever. That, and the achievement of staying healthy.
And, if we get a Werdum upset, we're having a different conversation entirely about all-time great heavyweights, nevermind Werdum authoring perhaps the two most impactful upsets in the history of the division.
12:10 a.m. ET Jordan Breen: It wasn't the fight people expected. Melendez's elbow smashing Alvarez's left eye and Alvarez inflating it changed the complexion of the fight, making it insane for Alvarez to try to seriously engage tit-for-tat on the feet. Somehow, he found a way to land clever shots, spinning back elbows and uppercuts, pin Melendez to the fence and tire “El Nino” out in a way I can't say I've ever seen him tired out before. I have this 29-28 Alvarez. It wasn't a barnburner, but Alvarez's career looked like it was headed down a slope after the first round of this and he fought the best way he could with one eye to keep his reputation as an elite lightweight. Gutsy stuff.
The scores are 29-28 Alvarez, 29-28 Melendez and 29-28 for your winner by split decision, Eddie Alvarez. A brutal break for Gilbert Melendez after such an assertive first round, but Eddie Alvarez had 10 minutes to right the ship basically on the future of his career. What a triumph of will.
12:03 a.m. ET Jordan Breen: Despite the fact that blowing his nose at the end of the first round caused his possibly broken left eye to explode, Alvarez just won the second round on my card with a scrappy second round. This isn't a war, but it's a gritty battle now with possibly everything hanging in the balance after Alvarez looked toast after five minutes. Even if I'd like a little more violence, I wouldn't call it an all-out "dud" just because Diego Sanchez isn't in there windmilling away.
12:01 a.m. ET Mike Sloan: Just as I expected: a dud of a fight between two guys who "hate" each other. Happens all the time.
11:56 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: It's one-way traffic for Gilbert Melendez through one. Melendez rocked Alvarez with clean punches and standing elbows and Alvarez was gunshy afterwards. Melendez remains superb at utilizing his long jab, covering distance and cutting angles well to set up powerful punches. Alvarez's left eye is messy.
11:36 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: So in short, Gastelum looked fantastic, but it is all relatively meaningless until we see him make 170 pounds healthily, consistently. At least he didn't vomit on himself while talking to Joe Rogan.
11:34 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: As expected, the younger and fitter fighter absolutely savages the old lion. Gastelum boxed Marquardt up every which way, dominated him on top, just kicked his ass. Gastelum's boxing looked especially sharp, using his jab effectively, cutting angles and putting his southpaw skills to great use. Marquardt tried, his body just can't do it any more. Gastelum nearly stopped him partway through the second round, but Marquardt regained guard and Gastelum took his foot off of the gas.
It doesn't matter, though. After the round is over, Dan Miragliotta calls for the doctor and before he can impose medical justice, Marquardt's trainer Trevor Wittman stops the fight and tells Marquardt he's done. Great cornering. There was absolutely nothing to gain from Marquardt going out and being smashed further. All too often in MMA, cornermen cling to the idea that “anything can happen” in this sport and let their charges take unnecessary damage. It's nice to see sanity prevail for once.
11:20 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Speaking of regurgitating things, it's time for a 36-year-old Nate Marquardt to play sacrificial lamb to inflated welterweight Kelvin Gastelum at 185 pounds. This is Marquardt's 19th bout in the UFC and 50th bout overall, so congratulations are in order on that front, but the former Pancrase standout is likely to just be a sacrificial lamb for Gastelum en route to the TUF winner getting a better diet plan and going back to 170 pounds.
That said, in spite of Gastelum being much more competitively prime than Marquardt and Marquardt being a faded force, Gastelum isn't great defensively and even his best wins have featured him taking some damage. If there's one last Tekken-style button-mashing combo in Marquardt, now is the time for him to use it.
11:10 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Wow. Then Yair Rodriguez pukes on himself during the postfight interview. That's so metal.
11:09 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Yair Rodriguez really put on a damn show out there. He still lacks in the defensive wrestling department, but hopefully his relationship with coach Izzy Martinez can change that over time. For now, whatever he's doing between training in New Mexico and Chicago is working, as his striking has gotten more varied and dangerous and he continues to find ways to get legitimate submission attempts and sweeps on more experienced grapplers.
Also, credit to Rosa, who showed his guts in stepping in short notice in his UFC debut and hanging tough with Dennis Siver, and showed it again here. Many folks would've tapped to the Rodriguez's triangle in the first, but he perservered. Rodriguez had him a bloody, battered mess at the end of round two, but Rosa actually won the third round with top control and ground-and-pound. These two fought their asses off, and bonus money is likely in their future.
My scorecard is 29-28 Rodriguez. The official scores are 29-28 Rodriguez, 29-28 Rosa and 29-28 for your winner by split decision, Yair Rodriguez. Well-deserved stuff. The kid is only 22 years old and showed massive improvement while taking an enormous step up in competition. Anyone nicknamed “Pantera” can't be all bad.
10:55 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Both fighters are exhausted after a wildly offensive first round. Contrary to preamble before the bout, Rodriguez actually caught a deep triangle on Rosa and held it for a couple minutes, forcing Rosa to inch his way out. This after the Mexican landed some flashy flying kicks to start the bout. Rosa came back and took back control for himself, but had his mouthguard knocked out late in the round. This one could really come down to the fitter man as they continue to exchange strikes and position freely.
10:40 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Well, onto the next and there's no way it'll be worse than what we just watched. That is, unless we're talking about the viability of TUF: Latin America, since the season's featherweight winner, Yair Rodriguez, is up next against the nasty grappling of Charles Rosa. Rodriguez is a decent fighter, but again, lacks much of a wrestling game and certainly lacks in comparison to Rosa's hyperactive, cutthroat submission game. The American Top Teamer Rosa could really show out in this fight and end it with a sassy submission, much as he did against Sean Soriano in January.
10:35 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: A lame fight ends with scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 for Tecia Torres. It was more or less what most folks imagined in this fight. Hill is still too green to stop a wrestler like Torres and Torres' problem remains the fact that he's more of an athlete than a natural fighter. She can land punch combinations, get takedowns, pass guard, but it typically doesn't amount to much. It's like watching someone drive a sports car in second gear. She's well-rounded enough to give anyone in the division a workout, but she has nowhere near the level of offense necessary to tangle with the likes of Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha at this point.
10:05 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: It's pay-per-view time, getting started with a pairing of TUF 20 alumni as unbeaten (well, officially, anyway) Tecia Torres takes on the also unbeaten (well, officially, anyway) Angela Hill. Torres is the favorite for a reason, or at least several: much more experience, her considerable athleticism and outstanding workrate. However, in spite of being very green as a fighter, Hill is a strong athlete, has a good clinch game and is one of the most amusing fighters on social media, between claiming Torres is a part of the Illuminati and doing stylish sketches of Kimbo Slice on Instagram.
9:51 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Also, Cejudo notes that he had a difficult weight cut due to an illness in training and that after his elaborate, costumed Aztec entrance this evening, wants to be known as “The Aztec Warrior.” Duly noted, Hank.
9:49 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: 29-28 Cejudo on my scorecard. He finally got the takedown late and round three was probably the clearest of the contest. Nonetheless, Camus proved to be the perfect slick gatekeeper-type to give Cejudo a real work out and Cejudo, while he is clearly nowhere near ready to face Demetrious Johnson, showed the ability to have success standing against a quality fighter who denies his takedown. Over the last 10 minutes, Cejudo found ways to sneak in punches, elbows, kicks and knees coming in and out of the clinch.
The scores are 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 for the winner by unanimous decision, Henry Cejudo. Scrappy win he deserves, moving to 9-0, while Chico Camus shows his worth as a UFC roster fighter. I dig it, even if Cejudo needs another fight or two at this level before moving onward and upward at 125. He's got tools, you can see flashes of them, everything hasn't coalesced together quite yet, though.
9:41 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Those Ben Askren wrestling session clearly coming in handy for Chico Camus, who is still thwarting Cejudo's takedowns. However, in the second frame, Cejudo landed a lot of clean right hands and punches off of feints and blown takedowns. I've got it tied up, but this fight could realistically be 20-18 for either fighter on any judge's card. Buckle up.
9:33 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Don't look now, but Chico Camus is off to a nice start. He's landed an array of quality counterpunches as Cejudo has attempted his striking rushes and shut down all of the Olympic gold medalist's takedowns. 10-9 Camus on my card, though Cejudo is still backing Camus up and getting him to the fence. Could be a provocative 10 minutes from here out.
9:29 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Time for Cejudo-Camus at 125 pounds. Cejudo closed as an over -1200 favorite in some places, which doesn't speak much to the fact that Camus is in fact, a decent fighter. However, despite general well-roundedness and some slick offensive ability, Cejudo's golden Olympic wrestling and incredibly high workrate should easily carry him to victory here.
The question with Cejudo is whether or not he'll be able to turn his dominant, go-go-go style into something that registers stoppages. His wins over Dustin Kimura and Chris Cariaso were thorough, ironclad blowouts, and the Olympic gold medalist really wore both guys out, but given how lopsided some of his bouts have been, you want to see if he can flash the next-level potential that could get him cozy with a flyweight title shot sooner rather than later.
9:10 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Unfortunately, the fast and furious handiwork or Pat Williams and Efrain Escudero means there is still 50 minutes left til the PPV starts, and the only fight we've got left is Henry Cejudo and Chico Camus. Pacing be damned, you can't win 'em all, especially when your fighters win incredibly fast.
9:09 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Well, hot damn, it looks like capital punishment is the order of the night in Mexico City, cause the guillotine is hot. The first occasion that Escudero and Dober engage, Escudero grabs a standing guillotine, cranks it with all he's got while keeping his feet. That's two standing guillotine finishes in a row, and unlike Dober's last fight, this one was legitimate. Fantastic quick-and-tidy win for Escudero. The whole shebang only takes 54 seconds, then Escudero pantomimes making it rain in the strip club when he's announced the winner. Yeehaw.
8:54 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Speaking of disappointing “Ultimate Fighter” winners with ties to Mexico, it's time for TUF 8 lightweight winner Efrain Escudero to try to push his record to 2-1 in what is now his third UFC run. In opposition, he's up against tough Nebraskan wrestler Drew Dober. You'll recall that Dober's last time out, he was robbed out of a win in a fight he was cruising in when referee Eduardo Herdy called for the bell while Brazilian Leandro Silva was holding a loose headlock on Dober in the worst bit of refereeing we'll probably see in the Octagon this year. Knock on wood.
8:47 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: The official time of Williams putting Perez into a pine box is just 23 seconds, toppiling Scott Jorgensen's previous Zuffa bantamweight record of 31 seconds over Chad George at WEC 47, which was a nasty guillotine in its own right. Also, Williams is now more than just that guy whose face Chris Beal went aerial on. Perez's eyes rolling back made him look positively dead.
8:47 p.m. ET Mike Sloan: I think Perez just learned the old life lesson of "You can't win if you can't breathe."
8:45 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Poor TUF: Latin America. Williams landed two immediate right hands, a shovel hook then a right cross, dropped Perez, then locked up a standing guillotine as Perez tries to scramble to his feet. Choked him out cold, left him hanging like a convict on the gallows. Fastest finish in UFC bantamweight history. Absolute demolition.
8:38 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: We've had a few duds so far in the Octagon, but up next is the biggest dud of the night on paper, with TUF: Latin America bantamweight winner (and Mexican!) Alejandro Perez taking on former Arizona State wrestler Patrick Williams, who you'll solely recall (if you can recall at all) as the guy who Chris Beal went airborne against and destroyed a flying knee. This will be another fight that tests the ongoing “Can the TUF: Latin America guys wrestle at all?” narrative.
8:35 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: It's 30-27 on my scorecard, as well as the three official ones, all for Johnny Case. Trevino had absolutely nothing for Case outside of the eye poke, which slowed Case visibly. Still, the Alliance MMA product dominated throughout against an opponent who wasn't too willing to engage, played defense the entire time and almost stabbed his eyeball out. Case grabbed his eye the minute the final horn sounded and was still clearly in pain. No way he could see anything after that poke. He deserves a serious lightweight next time out.
8:35 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: It's 30-27 on my scorecard, as well as the three official ones, all for Johnny Case. Trevino had absolutely nothing for Case outside of the eye poke, which slowed Case visibly. Still, the Alliance MMA product dominated throughout against an opponent who wasn't too willing to engage, played defense the entire time and almost stabbed his eyeball out. Case grabbed his eye the minute the final horn sounded and was still clearly in pain. No way he could see anything after that poke.
8:31 p.m. ET Mike Sloan:
I have a Die Hard movie poster on the left, a Sharknado movie poster on the right and my TV with this fight on in the middle. I would much rather look at either of those two posters than this fight.
8:20 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Also, kudos to John McCarthy for enunciating the question, “Can you see?” with just enough suggestion that Case immediately understood to say “Yes” even if he couldn't see, lest he blow his chance to get back into the fight. It sucks that MMA is still at that point where a ref basically has to play the wink-wink-nudge-nudge game with the injured fighter, but it's an effective means to an appropriate end in this case.
8:18 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Just as Case starts to beat Trevino up, Trevino stabs him in the eye with a nasty poke while throwing a kick. Case screamed out in pain and went down hard. Referee “Big” John McCarthy noted to the ringside physician that there's a scratch on Case's eye. We're rebooted now halfway through the first round, but it will obviously be compelling to see how Case continues, since he was dominating early.
8:12 p.m. ET Jeff Sherwood: Do you think there was ever a moment that a tattoo artist said to himself, “Crap I hope this fits!”?
8:07 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Trevino does have a real bohemian ponytail and a soul patch rivaling Josh Burkman, though. Meanwhile, Case can only muster a tattoo of his surname across his shoulders in Gothic script, but at least the letters are all a full foot tall.
8:03 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: It's midcard prelims time and we're televised not on Fox Sports 1, but FX, courtesy of FS1 broadcasting the FIFA Women's World Cup presently.
Time to wash the poopy taste out of our mouths after what Augusto Montano just did to us. Up first is a quality 155-pound pairing between Johnny Case and unbeaten Brazilian Francisco Trevino. The 25-year-old Case, who hasn't lost a fight in almost five years, is homies with Jeremy Stephens, who brought him out to Alliance MMA in San Diego, Calif., to train. However, Case is more like a meaner, nastier Myles Jury than the hooking and uppercutting brawler that Stephens is. Trevino, meanwhile, is a skilled striker with some slick submissions, but lacks much of a wrestling game and is coming off of 455 days on the shelf.
7:57 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: A terrible, sloppy exhibition of inactivity between Montano and Pendred. Pendred wasn't fast or slick enough to consistently hit Montano or take him down, while Montano avoided Pendred the entire bout while barely trying to counter, so much so Herb Dean warned him for passivity after the first damn round.
I can't knock Pendred for this fight; he's got physical limitations, they're obvious and he tries to fight within himself. Montano, on the other hand, embodied his “Dodger” nickname in all of the worst ways possible, deliberately avoiding the fight, throwing nothing but side kicks, which is about all you can throw if you want to stand eight feet or more from your opponent for the entire fight.
I have it 30-28 Pendred with a 10-10 opener, but all three judges see it 29-28 for the Irishman, who takes the unanimous decision. That fight sucked. It wasn't as putrid as Daniel Kelly-Patrick Walsh was this year, though, as that stinkfest still takes the cake for “Worst UFC Fight of 2015” so far.
7:57 p.m. ET Mike Sloan: Legit scoring, surprisingly. You know it's a lousy performance when you're a true-blooded Mexican fighting in your home town -- in Mexico -- and the entire crowd is booing you.
7:50 p.m. ET Jeff Sherwood: I might fall into the Pendred judging system because I gave him round one when it could have gone either way or even. Lets see how round three goes.
7:44 p.m. ET Jeff Sherwood: Shouldn't a fighter called "Dodger" have blue hair instead of red?
7:34 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Up next, we're off to 170 pounds, where another Mexican fighter hopes to get the biggest win of his career as Augusto Montano meets up with Cathal Pendred. Pendred actually opened around +130 in this bout, which just goes to show you how intense the backlash of public opinion can be. While Pendred's recent wins over Gasan Umalatov and Sean Spencer were both trash, especially the Spencer ripoff, Montano is a wild, one-dimensional striker without much defensive wrestling (here we go again). Pendred, despite slugging it out in some of his UFC appearances, is a top-position grinder first. Hopefully some of you out there get to make money based on the anti-Irish prejudice in the odds.
7:28 p.m. ET Mike Sloan: Good win for Benitez, but to be quite honest, he should have finished him. Dude was gassed out completely with his hands on his hips in the second. Collard was there for the taking for about eight minutes. Maybe it's a lack of killer instinct on Benitez' part or just unreal grittiness for Collard, who knows. But Collard had no business being there until the end.
7:28 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Well, Benitez's takedown defense stunk, but he made up for it with heavy, body-destroying southpaw tactics. He almost finished Collard in the first with a guillotine, nearly finished him with a left roundhouse kick to the body in the second and kept smashing him through round three. It really did appear that Benitez had no idea how badly hurt Collard was after the body assault in the second round, in spite of the fact that the Mexican fighter kept up the left hooks and kicks to the liver and ribs. Collard was visibly hurt and may have broken ribs, but Benitez never floored the gas pedal.
I won't ding him too much, though, as Benitez showed real improvement to his game, becoming more predatory in his striking from the southpaw stance. Hopefully spending more time at American Kickboxing Academy can beef up his defensive wrestling game, since he gave up six takedowns to a fighter who was dead to rights for most of the bout. That includes getting his back taken in the last minute.
All three judges have the bout 30-27 for the winner by unanimous decision, Gabriel Benitez. Good scorecards, too, not just because they match mine, but they show a disregard for Collard's useless takedowns while he was getting pounded on.
7:05 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: With Todhunter-Tumenov off the bill, we start our second Octagon experience in Mexico City at 145 pounds, with “The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America” contestant Gabriel Benitez trying to make it 2-0 in the Octagon against Utah's Clay Collard. This is a well-matched contest and while he lacks defensive wrestling, which will probably be what kills him here, Benitez is a fun Mexican fighter with a bit of upside. That said, this might be the first of many bouts where we talk extensively about the TUF Latin America contingent not being the sturdiest in the wrestling department.
6:58 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: If you were unaware, we've already lost a bout from the card tonight, as debuting Andrew Todhunter was forced out of his late replacement bid against Albert Tumenov due to difficulties making weight. Todhunter would've struggled making 185 pounds on short notice, so coming in at 170 for Hector Urbina ended up being nothing but a pipe dream. Todhunter's debut is delayed and in the meantime, “Einstein” Tumenov gets at least his show money.
6:55 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: It's that time, fight freaks. It's time for UFC 188</>, as the UFC has pitched its tent in Mexico City for the second time, and unlike the first go-around with UFC 180 last November, UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velsquez has stayed healthy, so we finally get to watch him square off with now-interim heavyweight champ Fabricio Werdum in one of the best heavyweight clashes in years.
In addition to Velasquez-Werdum and whatever heavyweight insanity might erupt from it, we're also being treated to a long-ballyhooed lightweight bout between Gilbert Melendez and Eddie Alvarez, a bout dreamt about for four years and counting, since both were Strikforce and Bellator lightweight champions respectively. Now, the stakes are a tad different with no hardware in play, and the fact both men have losing records inside the Octagon since debuting under the UFC banner.
And that, of course, is to say nothing of Melendez's and Alvarez's respective propensities to engage in barnburners. We could be treated to a “Fight of the Year” candidate should the stars line up ever-so-correctly.
6:30 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Check this space at 7 p.m. ET for live UFC 188 reaction from myself and others.
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