The UFC 188 card comes to us this weekend from Mexico City with a headline fight between Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum. Velasquez is the long-time champion who is returning to the octagon after a layoff of more than a year and a half. The two were originally scheduled to fight at the UFC’s Mexico City debut last November, but Velasquez pulled out of that fight and Werdum defeated Mark Hunt to grab an interim version of the title, so this fight now is to unify the two existing belts.
The co-main event features lightweight stars Eddie Alvarez and Gilbert Melendez squaring off in a fight where both men are coming off rare losses and are in need of a win. It is hard to decide who needs a win more, as both have terrific overall records. Melendez, however, has last two of his last three fights and he was stopped for the first time in his career in his last outing by then champion Antony Pettis.
Alvarez is a former Bellator champion who came to the UFC amid a lot of hype. For his debut fight he faced Donald Cerrone, perhaps the hottest fighter on the UFC roster right now, and he faired well despite taking a loss. Going 0-2 in the UFC is not what the highly motivated Alvarez had in mind when he signed with the world’s biggest MMA company.
Check out our latest video blog where we review the five matches on UFC 188 slated for the PPV broadcast.
