Cleaning Out the Division: Heavyweights 1-5

Cleaning Out the Division: Heavyweights

Top 5

 

No touching the King, at least that is how it appears for (#1) UFC Heavyweight Champion Fabricio Werdum. He sits above the division’s top 10, looking unstoppable. Since coming back to the UFC he is on a 6 fight win streak, including 2 Submission and 2 TKO stoppages. Rematch with Cain Velasquez appears to be the fate for The Champ, but the target date isn’t until March, 2016. The 38 year old is 20-5-1 with 6 KO and 10 Submission wins. Werdum’s last 3 losses came from, currently ranked top 10 fighters: Andrei Arlovski, Junior Dos Santos, and Alister Overeem. Since “Vai Cavalo” has wins over nearly every other top 15 HW out there, expect a redemption fight following a second win over Cain. JDS and Overeem are scheduled to fight in December and Arlovski is red hot, on a 6 fight win streak, following his close win over Frank Mir 9/5/15.

In 15 fights (#2) Cain Velasquez has only been to a decision twice (both UD victories for Cain) and he has only been beaten in Championship match ups (Dos Santos and Werdum). Cain’s third career fight was in the UFC. He ended it the same way he has ended 11 of his HW bouts, Knock Out. Some of the names on that list: Big Nog, Lesnar, Bigfoot (twice both in the 1^st round). After losing to JDS by TKO, in their first Championship Fight, Cain returned and bested the Brazilian in a 5 round UD, then TKO’d him in the rubber match (10/19/13). Velasquez dropped the strap to Werdum (6/13/15) and will get the chance to avenge this loss also, however if ring rust were a factor (20 months between fights) in the loss, another 9 months between fights (rumored for March) may not help the 33 year old.  

Junior Dos Santos (#3) sent current champ Fabricio Werdum packing. In Werdum’s initial run through the UFC, a 1^st round (1:21) TKO, at the hands of JDS, was his last fight with the promotion for over 3 years. “Cigano” has only lost to Cain Velasquez (twice) and Joaquim Ferreira (way back in 07). He has 12 KO’s in his 17 Heavyweight wins. The 31 year old last fight was a 5 round UD win over Stipe Miocic 12/13/14. It will total, just over, a year between fights when he faces Alistair Overeem at UFC on Fox 17 (12/19/15).

Stipe Miocic (#4) got back to his winning ways with a TKO win over Mark Hunt (5/10/15). JDS temporarily halted the Ohioan’s freight train-like charge toward a title shot last December, but the 33 year old could inject himself back into the mix with a win over Ben Rothwell, when the two face in Dublin at UFC Fight Night 76 (10/24/15). At 6’4” Miocic owns 9 KO’s in his 13-2 career. Last May He halted, the always durable, Fabio Maldonado in the opening 0:35.

Andrei Arlovski (#5) has been at it awhile. The Pit Bull’s first UFC fight was UFC 28 (11/17/00), he won by first round submission. Perhaps efficiency is the secret to Arlovski’s continued success. Of the Belarussian’s 20 early stoppages 13 have come in the first round. Currently on a 6 fight win streak (including 3 KO/TKO’s), he is fresh off a close UD over Frank Mir (9/5/15) and could find himself back in a championship bout before the end of 2016.