Tonight’s Gamebred FC event was headlined by a rematch between former UFC heavyweight champions Fabricio Werdum and Junior dos Santos.
Werdum (24-9-1 MMA) and Dos Santos (21-10 MMA) had originally collided at UFC 90 in October of 2008, with ‘JDS’ emerging victorious by way of first-round TKO in a fight that served as his Octagon debut.
Now, almost fifteen full years later, the pair squared off once again, this time under Jorge Masvidal’s ‘Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA’ fight banner.
Junior dos Santos had entered the contest looking to snap a five-fight losing skid. The former UFC heavyweight champion had lost all five of his previous recent fights by TKO, suffering those setbacks to Francis Ngannou, Curtis Blaydes, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Ciryl Gane and most recently Yorgan De Castro.
Meanwhile, Fabricio Werdum had last competed in May of 2021 under the PFL banner, where his bout with Renan Ferreira was ultimately ruled a no-contest. Prior to that controversial fight, ‘Vai Cavalo’ was coming off a first-round submission win over Alexander Gustafsson under the UFC banner in July of 2020.
Tonight’s heavyweight rematch resulted in a split decision victory for Junior dos Santos. JDS was able to get the better of Fabricio Werdum on the feet, even dropping his adversary with a right hand in the final seconds of round one (see that here). While he made multiple efforts, Werdum was never really successful in his attempts to get the fight to the ground, which cost him.
Official Gamebred FC 5 Results: Junior dos Santos def. Fabricio Werdum by split decision (30-27, 30-27, 28-29)
Check out how MMA Twitter reacted to ‘Werdum vs. dos Santos 2’ below:
https://twitter.com/bjpenndotcom/status/1700350827095884256
Werdum out to Sandstorm? Violence is coming pic.twitter.com/eX9IOZFxbR
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) September 9, 2023
Cigano out to the Rocky theme. What else pic.twitter.com/vXk4Mv6Dhk
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) September 9, 2023
Thank God this was free #GamebredBareknuckle
— Amy Kaplan (@PhotoAmy33) September 9, 2023
The right hand that sat down Werdum 👊🏼 #GamebredBareknuckle pic.twitter.com/zQG2CJrgYZ
— bjpenndotcom (@bjpenndotcom) September 9, 2023
Oh man. Werdum’s eyelid is hanging on for dear life #GamebredBareknuckle pic.twitter.com/I92p1md8ac
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) September 9, 2023
Fighting Bare Knuckle against Junior Dos Santos doesn’t look fun.
Werdum’s face is a mess. #GamebredBareknuckle pic.twitter.com/k72m8ADcJV
— AFeldmanMMA (@afeldMMA) September 9, 2023
Post-fight reactions to Junior dos Santos defeating Fabricio Werdum tonight in Jacksonville:
Split decision hahaha. Fuck off
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) September 9, 2023
29-28 Werdum might be the worst scorecard of all time. Seriously, WTF Barry Luxenberg. #GamebredBareknuckle
— Adam Martin (@MMAdamMartin) September 9, 2023
Sadly I did not. Who won? https://t.co/7UMTMNZmnl
— michael (@bisping) September 9, 2023
What did you think of tonight’s heavyweight main event? Were you surprised by the outcome?
