Fabricio Werdum, From the Beginning

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Coincidence or not, the following day, Werdum received a phone call from manager Ken Imaia telling him he had been offered a three-year contract with Pride Fighting Championships. He moved to Croatia in September 2004 to train with Mirko Filipovic and was introduced to a training regimen with which he was wholly unfamiliar.

“I have to admit that I never had good discipline with training before 2004,” Werdum said. “The training routine with Mirko in Croatia was like being in an army. We’d wake up every day around 5 a.m. and trained in two periods of three hours, plus cardio training. It was such a difficult and amazing experience for me. Mirko learned ground skills with me, while I learned striking with him and [our boxing coach] Vlador [Bozic]. While I was there, I started to recognize the importance of cardio training.”

On Feb. 20, 2005, a man who started training jiu-jitsu because of a girl, made his debut in what was then the biggest MMA organization in the world. Pride 29 saw him matched with Tom Erikson, an American wrestling champion no one wanted to face. The underdog from Brazil once again sprang the surprise, as he submitted Erikson with a rear-naked choke 5:11 into the first round.

After six more months of heavy training with “Cro Cop,” Werdum returned to the Pride ring to face Roman Zentsov, a student of Filipovic’s chief rival, the aforementioned Emelianenko. Though Werdum fought with a fever, Zentsov had no chance: “Vai Cavalo” submitted him with a triangle choke in a little more than six minutes. Werdum experienced his first defeat in October 2005, when he dropped a split decision to Russian boxer Sergei Kharitonov, one of Pride’s most feared heavyweights. The performance, followed by a decision win over John Olav Einemo at Pride 31, earned Werdum a spot in the Pride open weight grand prix.

However, change was in the air. The cold winter in Croatia led Werdum to return to Brazil to prepare for the tournament.

“Croatia is 15 below zero in the winter time,” he said. “I was getting depressed, so I decided to make my final preparations in Brazil, where I could also adjust my jiu-jitsu, train my boxing skills with Paulo Cafuringa and do my cardio training with Paulo Caruso.”

In the first round of the grand prix, Werdum was paired with Alistair Overeem. He submitted the Dutchman with a kimura and credits Mauricio Behring for giving him the wakeup call he needed.

“I was fighting Overeem’s fight in the first round, and he pleaded with me between rounds,” Werdum said. “He told me, ‘You go in there and do your game and you’ll submit this guy.’ That made me wake up and make Overeem play my game, and I submitted him with kimura in the second round.”

In the quarterfinals, a showdown with an all-time great awaited.

FACING THE IDOL

Werdum did not like the idea of fighting Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but he had to admit it was better than facing “Cro Cop,” who had also advanced to the quarterfinals on the other side of the bracket. Two weeks before the bout with Nogueira, Werdum’s coach, friend and sponsor, Mauricio Pereira, was shot to death.

“It was one of the worst moments of my life,” Werdum said. “I was living in his house in Rio [de Janeiro]. When I returned home after training, I got the news that he had been shot by the father of his girlfriend after an argument. It was unbelievable, but I tried to keep focus and fight ‘Minotauro’ in honor of Mauricio.”

Werdum lost to Nogueira by decision. At the conclusion of their match, the two Brazilians, both of whom were friends with Pereira, held up a T-shirt with his picture on it. Four months later, Werdum looked on as Nogueira lost to Josh Barnett in the semifinals. Friend and training partner “Cro Cop” then beat Barnett to win the tournament.

In 2007, Werdum elected to move to Curitiba, Brazil, to train with the rebuilding Chute Boxe camp, which had recently seen the departures of Wanderlei Silva and many other key pieces. Werdum spent some time with Rafael Cordeiro and Mauricio Rua before they left to create their own teams. Evangelista Santos emerged as his primary training partner during the 15 months he trained at Chute Boxe.

“It was such a hard time for me,” Werdum said. “My wife and baby daughter were living in Porto Alegre, and I had to fly from Curitiba to Porto every weekend.”

When the Ultimate Fighting Championship bought out Pride, Werdum’s attention turned to the UFC. Even without the best training structure at Chute Boxe, he enjoyed strong results at the start of his first run in the organization. After a decision loss to Andrei Arlovski, Werdum stopped Brandon Vera and Gonzaga with punches. He was one win away from a shot at the UFC heavyweight title. The wins over Vera and Gonzaga led to a matchup with the unheralded Junior dos Santos at UFC 90, and Werdum admits he took “Cigano” lightly before being knocked out in 81 seconds. Following the loss, he said he refused a 30-percent pay cut and was released by the UFC.

“That was the worst moment of my career -- I had never been knocked out -- but it was also a turning point for me,” Werdum said. “One day, I’m close to the belt, and the following day, I’m without a job.”

After spending time in Porto Alegre, Madrid, Croatia, Rio de Janeiro and Curitiba, Werdum was left to pick up the pieces and resume his pursuit of becoming the world’s best heavyweight elsewhere.

CHASING GREATNESS

After a phone call to Cordeiro, who had just opened his new academy in Huntington Beach, Calf., Werdum, his wife and his daughter moved again. He set up shop at Kings MMA and started to rebuild his career. Following eight months of training under Cordeiro, Werdum signed with Strikeforce and submitted Mike Kyle in 1:24 in his August 2009 promotional debut.

“Vai Cavalo” followed the victory over Kyle with a tough decision win against Antonio Silva, earning a crack at Emelianenko, the most revered fighter in the sport. The Russian icon had not lost in nine years and would enter their matchup on a 28-fight unbeaten streak that included names like Filipovic, Nogueira, Mark Coleman and Mark Hunt. Emelianenko was a heavy favorite, which meant absolutely nothing to Werdum.

“I was training so hard with Rafael, and I remember one day I got a video from Wanderlei saying that he was sure that I was going to win that fight,” Werdum said. “To hear that from a national idol like Wanderlei, the way he talked, the way I trained so hard, I really went into that fight self-confident.”

The Brazilian surprised the crowd and the MMA world by submitting Emelianenko with a triangle armbar in 69 seconds.

“I cannot describe what I felt at that moment,” Werdum said. “In my opinion, Fedor is still the best of all-time. I was the better man that night, but one defeat cannot erase the history of a man who went undefeated for 10 years and beat the best more than once. People cannot forget about Fedor.”

Now on a five-fight winning streak, Werdum has arrived at the most important moment of his career. In his way stands another legend of the sport, a man viewed by many as the “Baddest Man on the Planet.” Velasquez will be heavily favored, but Werdum relishes his role as the underdog and plans to write his name in the history books yet again.