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By: Kale Havervold, MMATorch Contributor
Heavyweight action takes over network TV Saturday night, as Travis Browne and Fabricio Werdum fight to determine the next contender to the UFC Heavyweight Championship. It's a major fight in the heavyweight field between two highly talented fighters. Let's break it down!
Striking
Browne
Travis Browne has 12 knockouts in his 17 MMA bouts. In fact, his last three bouts have all ended with a KO win, with wins over Gabriel Gonzaga, Alistair Overeem, and Josh Barnett. Browne possesses a broader arsenal of strikes and also more power than his opponent, Fabricio Werdum. In his last fight against Barnett, he utilized vicious side elbows against the cage to finish the fight, a technique that is rare to see.
Werdum
Ever since his brutal KO loss to Junior dos Santos, Fabricio Werdum has worked on his striking extensively and has improved it by a lot. He may not hold the power that Browne does, but he may hold a slight advantage in technique as Browne tends to throw wild strikes. He also has very great knees, especially in the clinch, which is one thing that Browne really struggled with in his fight against Overeem.
ADVANTAGE – Browne (1)
Wrestling/Takedowns
Browne
While he is primarily a striker, Travis Browne might be one of the last people that fighters want to try to take down. In two of his past three fights, when Browne's opponents attempt to take him down, they end up unconscious due to the aforementioned elbows. Browne doesn't offer much in terms of offensive wrestling, but those elbows are a great deterrent to stop people from trying to take him down.
Werdum
If Werdum does try to take Browne down, he must make sure he is constantly moving and adjusting when doing so, to try best to avoid those elbows. Werdum isn't known as being too great at wrestling or takedowns, but once he gets a hold of you, you are in some serious trouble.
ADVANTAGE – Browne (2)
BJJ/Grappling
Browne
Browne hasn't done a lot in terms of grappling in the UFC, so we don't really known what the Hawaiian brings to the table in terms of his Jiu Jitsu. He's got a couple submission victories, but nothing that should really impress anyone, and no one even nearly as good as Werdum on the ground.
Werdum
Fabricio Werdum is a quite simply a world class BJJ talent. He has never been submitted in his career, and has over half of his MMA wins by way of submission, including victories over Overeem, Nogueira, and Fedor. He brings a variety of maneuvers and is the best ground fighter that Browne has ever fought. If Werdum will dominate Browne in any way, it'll be in this area.
ADVANTAGE – Werdum (1)
Conditioning/ 5 Round Experience
Browne
While Travis Browne is not as experienced as Werdum, he has been in some wars with some serious competition like Overeem and Barnett. Browne's conditioning hasn't really come to question in his last few fights as he has won by first round KO in each of his last three outings. Conditioning could be a question as we haven't seen him go past the first round in years, so we can't be too certain on what may happen.
Werdum
Werdum has had quite a long layoff since his last fight, which was almost a year ago. Conditioning and ring rust is always a factor when a fighter is coming off of a long layoff. And despite Werdum never really having any big conditioning problems in his MMA career, you have to go with the fighter who has been more active.
ADVANTAGE – Browne (3)
EDGE – Travis Browne 3-1
Barring a ground grappling war, I see this being a fairly one sided fight in favour of Travis Browne. Despite only being stopped once in his career, I don't see Werdum doing much on the feet to stop Browne. Travis Browne seems hell bent on getting that title shot and I don't see Werdum being able to stop him.
PICK – Travis Browne wins by first round T(KO)
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