Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Brazilian Fighters

9. Fabricio Werdum

The great, yet mercurial Werdum is ninth on this list after finishing fourth on Sherdog's list of top 10 heavyweights. At his best, Werdum was simply a superior version of his fellow Brazilian legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, whom we will see later: even better jiu-jitsu, better wrestling, better striking and a similarly iron chin that could take endless punishment—and Werdum actually beat Fedor Emelianenko. In fact, Werdum defeated a slew of great heavyweights at various points in their careers: Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem, Nogueira himself and of course, the amazing upset of then seemingly unbeatable Cain Velasquez.

Trouble is, Werdum was inconsistent and never had a sustained period of dominance, frequently losing to other top heavyweights, including Overeem and Nogueira, being knocked out in the first round by Stipe Miocic and Junior dos Santos in poor performances, and even dropping decisions to guys that didn't make the all-time heavyweight top 10, like Andrei Arlovski and Sergei Kharitonov. He didn’t always give his best in the way that Nogueira did, and that's why he's lower. In fact, there's really no reason Werdum should have lost to Nogueira in 2006. He was less experienced but more fundamentally skilled in all areas, a year younger, and had far less mileage on the odometer. Sometimes Werdum would show incredible fighting spirit, but not always. Still, while his time at the top was short and inconsistent, his collection of best victories is as good as anyone's.

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