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Fabricio Werdum

Fabricio Werdum's career happened because he got embarrassed in front of a girl. Really. Fabricio Werdum started grappling as a teenager because his then-girlfriend's ex put him in a triangle choke. The history of combat sports owes an incredible debt to you, anonymous Brazilian jerk.

The incident set a baseline for the weirdness that characterized Werdum's career. He was a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu prodigy, but faced the end of his studies when his family moved to Spain, which in the 1990s had virtually no grappling schools--so, despite being only a purple belt, Werdum simply began teaching the art himself as he was essentially Spain's best grappler by default. Within a few years he was a successful teacher, a multiple-time world jiu-jitsu champion and a black belt under Sylvio Behring, and just months later he stepped into mixed martial arts.

Werdum entered the international spotlight at Pride 29 in 2005. He was already 4-0-1 in mixed martial arts and was thus given a stiff challenge in his Pride debut: "The Big Cat" Tom Erikson, a 6'4", 9-1-1 wrestler whose only loss had come against perennial contender Heath Herring--at least, in this sport. Erikson left MMA in 2002 and spent the intervening years getting repeatedly knocked out in kickboxing. By 2005 he was staring down his 41st birthday and finally showing the mileage of a 20-year combat sports career and multiple recent concussions, and fell easily to Werdum in five minutes. He'd repeat the performance just six months later, choking out Roman Zentsov in the first round, before being matched up against fellow surging contender Sergei Kharitonov at Pride 30.

It was an incredibly frustrating fight. Werdum was still a pure jiu-jitsu artist and unequipped to deal with Kharitonov's boxing skill; Kharitonov was a solid hand at sambo but knew better than to engage with Werdum on the ground. The result was 20 minutes of stalling. Werdum threw desperate takedowns, Sergei threw potshotting punches, and every time Kharitonov closed in Werdum dropped to his back and pulled guard--ultimately 17 separate times over the course of the fight. At one point Werdum offered to let Kharitonov start in the side control position if he'd fight on the ground with him. Kharitonov's response was to wave him up and punch him in the chest. Kharitonov won a split decision, and Werdum won a soured reputation with the MMA fanbase.

That reputation lasted through the end of Pride. Werdum had an extremely impressive Pride record of 4-2, having lost only to Kharitonov and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but his reputation as The Buttflopping Guy was difficult to shake. He was picked up by the UFC after they acquired Pride, but ultimately went just 2-2 with the organization and was cut after a violent first-round knockout loss against a little-known rookie named Junior dos Santos. By 2009 Werdum had crossed his 30th birthday, he'd suffered the first stoppage of his career, he'd been fired by the premier fighting organization on the planet and his future in the sport seemed uncertain.

Luckily, Scott Coker happened. Scott Coker, MMA promoter and former stuntman star of Surf Ninjas (no, seriously), was reconstituting the unsigned remnants of Pride's heavyweight division in his surging Strikeforce promotion, and Werdum was on his list. By 2010 Fabricio was already 2-0 in the organization, with wins over infamous cheater Mike Kyle and the ever-imposing Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva, and that earned him a showdown against Strikeforce's top star and the biggest spotlight of his career: The June 26, 2010 main event of Strikeforce: Fedor vs Werdum. Fedor Emelianenko had made a successful Strikeforce debut the year prior, and as the single most notable fighter outside the UFC, the virtually undefeated heavyweight on a 26-fight, decade-long winning streak was the center of Strikeforce's marketing plans. Fedor was a -1100 betting favorite, and Strikeforce was greedily anticipating a victory that would set up a Fedor vs Alistair Overeem championship showdown.

Instead, Fedor dropped Werdum off an uppercut, rushed into his guard and was submitted with a triangle armbar in just 69 seconds. Fabricio Werdum had shocked the world. Strikeforce scrambled to change their plans, and the result was the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, a year-long, 8-man tournament that was not-subtly designed to give Fedor another chance to rise. But the first round would first see Fabricio Werdum facing Alistair Overeem, a rematch from a Pride contest Werdum had won. Fans were still rabid for the contest, eager to see Overeem, then arguably the best heavyweight in the sport, against the man who'd slain Fedor.

What they got was the Kharitonov fight all over again. Over 15 minutes of fighting, Werdum attempted to pull guard an incredible 23 times. The crowd booed and at one point several fans threw beer, and all the good will Werdum had earned by defeating Fedor evaporated overnight--along with Strikeforce itself, which folded a little over a year later. Fabricio was pulled back into the UFC, but now in his mid-30s and having been thoroughly humiliated on primetime television, expectations were not high.

He promptly had the best years of his career. Between 2012 and 2016 Werdum rattled off the longest winning streak of his career, including submitting the jiu-jitsu expert Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and knocking out kickboxing champion Mark Hunt, in the process earning a championship unification match with the new #1 on the planet, Cain Velasquez. Once again, Werdum was a heavy underdog, and once again, Werdum shocked the world by choking Velasquez out in the third round. Staring down his fortieth birthday, Fabricio Werdum was the biggest star in heavyweight mixed martial arts: A vastly improved muay thai striker with the most dangerous grappling in the sport and cardio to fight for five solid rounds, making him a nightmare matchup for anyone. Many commentators foresaw him holding the belt for years and building a legacy as the best heavyweight champion in UFC history.

Werdum, forever defying expectations, was knocked out by Stipe Miocic in the first round of his first defense.

Werdum would attempt to get his career back on track--including a rubber match with Overeem, which he lost by majority decision--but his momentum was shut down after being knocked out by Alexander Volkov and permanently ended after Werdum failed a drug test for trenbolone, resulting in a two-year suspension from competition. Rather than serving his sentence, he attempted to get released from the UFC in the hopes of pursuing fighting internationally--but as of this writing the UFC has frozen his contract, and when he is once again eligible to fight he'll be on the north side of 43, and the prospects are dim.

Which is both a deeply unfortunate and deeply appropriate way for such a weird career to end. Fabricio Werdum never had a winning streak longer than six fights, his reign atop mixed martial arts lasted just one, and every time he achieved international stardom he immediately lost it through either a bad performance or someone's fists. He also brutally stopped Cain Velasquez, Alistair Overeem, Mark Hunt and Fedor Emelianenko. He was a student-teacher who became one of the best grapplers on the planet and a one-dimensional submission artist who became a top-tier striker. He may not be the most consistent of top heavyweights, but he is, unmistakably, one of the best of all time.

Moveset, stats, logic and four attires (UFC 188 vs Velasquez / Pride: Total Elimination Absolute vs Overeem / Strikeforce vs Fedor / UFC 198 vs Miocic). Will choke you. Frequently.