Russow is a bit of a dark horse. I can't say I enjoy watching him fight, and I'd be surprised if he makes it out of this with his 0 in tact, but it's about time he took a step up, and Werdum is in desperate need of an opponent. just checked his record for some reason I thought he was undefeated... :/
Can't believe this fight. Werdum puts an absolute beatdown on a top 10 heavyweight for his debut, throwing some of the most vicious knees ever seen in the Octagon, and gets rewarded for that by being put in with a D-class banger who was getting owned for 12 minutes by Todd Duffee and is lucky if he's a top 20 hw on his best night. Shockingly bad fight. I was hoping for Mir vs Werdum, but even Struve vs Werdum would've been more interesting than this.
Im afraid i have to echo these thoughts :yikes Its a shocker IMO Struve , Schaub & Hunt are all credible oppponents for Werdum , this really is dissapointing
Werdum re joined the UFC with a win over Fedor and a decision loss to Overeem in his last 2 outings , being the first man to beat Fedor in 10 years Then he beat Nelson who is / was above Russow in the pecking order , that by default should have Werdum hovering around contender status , Russow is not a contender :deal , therefore the match making doesnt make sense here , Werdum should be getting the push towards a title shot , not staying busy or a re building style fight Werdum Mir was the one everybody wanted to see , even underneath Frank Mir the UFC still have options , Russow is just a bad choice in every department
Russow should be in there with Hunt, Browne, Struve, Barry and Johnson. Exciting fights between guys below the top rung who could be a legit' contender with a decent run. All come to whack and have varying degrees of grappling prowess. Maybe even chuck Sasquatch back in the mix. Russow literally has a punchers chance only here. And less of one than Nelson IMO. I'm sure it'll be an enjoyable enough fight,but I'm disappointed on behalf of Fabricio. Hopefully the idea is he wins, stays sharp, and welcomes the winner of Barnett-Cormier into the UFC in a no.1 contenders match against the winner of JDS/Overeem/Cain/Mir ;-) We can dream
He isn't? :huh Just checked: 'undefeated in the UFC' :yep :-( They always say he's undefeated IIRC atsch WTF?! He fought Kharitonov in Pride?!
Speaking of Kharitonov, Zuffa should've kept hold of him, he would've fit in well into the exciting mess above, and you can chuck Kongo in there as well. At his best he's probably just above that level, but he's patchy nowadays. Should've brought him over, the division needs all the help it can get. Getting dominated by Barnett on the ground is not a shocking indictment of anyone. Kharitonov is rounded with power, there's no reason he should've been let go on that performance unless he was on a fairly lucrative few fight deal (and IIRC wasn't Arlovski his first SF fight?) and, as aforementioned, he would've been an exciting division to a ragtag buch of lower tier Heavys.
Russow has impressive sub defence and can nullify a high level hits guy on the ground as he did with Einemo. I rate Werdum the favourite but not by as much as everyone else and make Russow a live underdog. He will be able to take Werdum down I think and if he can nullify him then he could grind out a decision. Werdum will have to win to avoid the lose to Russow and get cut curse though.
Sergei's Strikeforce contract was something like $100k a fight, they probably don't think he's worth that, as much as I think he'd be a solid addition.