Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Heavyweights

4. Fabricio Werdum

Another truly difficult fighter to place. I had him ninth, but can perfectly appreciate the reasons for ranking him this high. At his absolute best, Werdum was simply a superior version of his fellow Brazilian champion, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, in almost every way; even better jiu-jitsu, better wrestling, better striking, an equally iron chin that could take endless punishment—and he 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 the seemingly unbeatable Cain Velasquez.

The trouble is that 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 fighters that didn't make this list, like Andrei Arlovski and Sergei Kharitonov. He wasn't always giving his best the way that Nogueira did, which is why he's lower on this list. 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 peak victories is as good as anyone's.

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