Fabricio Werdum might have recently made the move over to PFL to compete for the promotion’s Heavyweight World Championship, but he still has one eye on how the UFC’s Heavyweight division is progressing now that Jon Jones has entered it. Werdum has always been known as one of the best grapplers in MMA, thanks to the pairs of ADCC and IBJJF World Championship titles he earned during his Jiu-Jitsu career. He only reached the very peak of his career after he started to develop a fearsome striking game to complement his elite grappling and eventually added a stint as UFC Heavyweight Champion to his list of achievements.
Despite the rounding out of his game being the final piece of his puzzle for success, Werdum has never left his Jiu-Jitsu roots behind and still competes on the professional grappling circuit on the odd occasion. Not just that, but his submission skills have paid dividends in his MMA career as well, from becoming the first man to submit the legendary Fedor Emilianenko and earning Performance of the Night honors in his final UFC fight against Alexander Gustafson.
During a recent interview with Sherdog, Fabricio Werdum made the bold claim that he could do exactly the same to one of the most successful UFC Champions of all time, Jon Jones:
“I believe Jones will be the future UFC heavyweight champion. If I win the PFL heavyweight grand prix, it would be great to finally fight him in a cross-promotion superfight. I have no doubt that if I face Jones in the same shape I fought Gustafsson, I would submit him on the ground.”
