MEXICO CITY -- It seemed like such a match made in heaven: "Cardio" Cain Velasquez and the thin, polluted air of Mexico's capital.
Whether or not "home-field advantage" exists in mixed martial arts is a topic worthy of debate -- but in Velasquez's case, it is worth noting how the physical characteristics of Mexico City actually align with his fighting style.
Prior to Velasquez's loss to Fabricio Werdum on Saturday, it stood to reason his freakish endurance would translate perfectly to the 7,300-foot elevation.
Considering that his game plan is to essentially run opponents out of the building with pace, any lack of oxygen would theoretically speed up the process.
There was no doubt that elevation affected performances at UFC 188. As UFC president Dana White put it, they set a record for fighters losing their lunch in the back. For one, Yair Rodriguez couldn't even make it to the back. He vomited down the front of his shirt while standing in the Octagon postfight. Former Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez visibly hit a wall in his co-main event against Eddie Alvarez. It might have cost him the fight.
Not that Mexico City is really "home" to Velasquez (13-2), who trains out of San Jose, California, but obviously, as a Mexican-American heavyweight champion, he was halfway expected to set up shop here. Velasquez defending a title in front of 20,000-plus Mexican fans could have been an annual event for the UFC. Maybe it still could be.
Unfortunately for him, he is 0-for-1 in the country after Saturday's loss. As shocking as the result itself was, even more so was the fact a lack of cardio had anything to do with it.
Here are the grades for Velasquez and Werdum's performances, along with others on the card.
(A-plus) Fabricio Werdum (Defeated Cain Velasquez via submission, 2:13 R3)
Werdum did his homework. He was ready for Velasquez's pressure, more so than anyone who has ever fought him -- including Junior dos Santos. Plenty of title challengers are confident the week of a fight, but Werdum looked like a man who had seen the future in Mexico and was very comfortable with what was about to happen. His execution on fight night was great, but Werdum's level of preparation was what truly stood out here. He called his shot, basically all the way down to how the fight looked once it started.
(A) Efrain Escudero (Defeated Drew Dober via submission, 0:54 R1)
This is the guy we thought we were getting back in 2008, when Escudero won season eight of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series. The lead-up to the standing guillotine finish was basically nothing -- simultaneously thrown leg kicks, which happened to knock Dober briefly off-balance. That's all the opportunity Escudero needed. Those MMA Lab guys know their guillotines (see Ben Henderson, John Moraga, etc.).
(A) Patrick Williams (Defeated Alejandro Perez via submission, 0:23 R1)
Thirteen months after finding himself on the wrong end of what some considered the 2014 knockout of the year, Williams left Perez seated, almost peacefully, unconscious along the cage -- courtesy of a standing guillotine. He ran into some cardio issues in his UFC debut against Chris Beal, but those didn't surface this time in a 23-second fight. He made it a point to thank his in-cage sponsors on the mike. Those go away next month with the UFC/Reebok deal.
(A-minus) Yair Rodriguez (Defeated Charles Rosa via split decision)
You don't love the third round, during which Rodriguez faded and was mostly controlled on the ground -- but everything up until that third round? Pretty good. Rosa was a decent test for Rodriguez. This was no freebie for the 22-year-old prospect -- in fact, Rosa was a decent favorite to win. Rodriguez still needs plenty of polish, but there is a ton of potential here. Top-10 potential. Possibly more.
(B-plus) Eddie Alvarez (Defeated Gilbert Melendez via split decision)
Alvarez didn't wow anyone with this performance and he's not likely to shoot up the rankings because of it, but all things considered, this has to be one of the biggest wins of his career. It's a bit of a strange one because, if we're being honest, Melendez so visibly hitting the wall cardio-wise in the second round contributed so heavily to Alvarez's win. You have to credit Alvarez for that though, getting on Melendez with the takedown attempts and fighting through the nasty swollen left eye, which was completely closed from the end of the first round on. It might not have brought the house down, but this was as hard-fought as it gets for Alvarez.
(B-plus) Henry Cejudo (Defeated Chico Camus via unanimous decision)
Cejudo has our attention and, because of that, we might have higher expectations of him in the short term than we probably should. At 28 years old, Cejudo is primed to make a run at the title within the next couple of years -- not within the next couple of months. He has shown terrific instincts in just about every facet of the game -- but it's not a complete game yet. Cejudo is still in that development phase, where sometimes you have Cejudo the boxer ... then you have Cejudo the wrestler. The seamless transitions from one aspect of his skill set to the next aren't there yet. They will be. Hopefully, circumstances won't rush him into a title fight he's clearly not ready for yet.
(B) Kelvin Gastelum (Defeated Nate Marquardt via TKO, 5:00 R2)
These were two guys at very different spots in their careers in this fight. Gastelum looked quite good, but it was hard to envision a scenario in which he didn't. Within 15 seconds, it was pretty clear this was his fight to lose. So, let's turn our attention to the future. Should he go back to 170 pounds? In the current state of weight-cutting in MMA, yeah, he probably should. It's easy to understand his concerns, potentially fighting guys like Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold. At the same time, Gastelum has had wake-up calls as far as his horrendous cuts to welterweight go, and it hasn't mattered. I don't blame Dana White's stance that nothing has really changed.
(B) Tecia Torres (Defeated Angela Hill via unanimous decision)
Good win for Torres. Nothing that significantly changes what we knew about her going in, but it was a fight she should have won, and she came through. Torres didn't take a lot of risks. The fact that referee John McCarthy stood her up multiple times from top position, against an opponent who really didn't offer much of a threat in the way of submissions or an ability to get up, wasn't promising. Torres probably could have done more offensively. She had to have known she was ahead on the cards, however, and it's possible she didn't want to run the risk of gassing out. Nothing to write home about here, but an important W.
(C) Angela Hill (Lost to Tecia Torres via unanimous decision)
All in all, not a bad effort from the 27-year-old. This was a tough matchup stylistically, as Torres doesn't offer a lot in terms of blatant weaknesses. Hill took advantage of her size and athleticism at times, which is what you want to see, I think, at this stage of her career. From a technical standpoint, she's still trailing many of the other fighters in this division. Evidence of improvement was there, and that athleticism isn't going anywhere. If she continues to make strides on the technical side, Hill could eventually be a factor at 115 pounds. She has a way to go, though.
(C) Gilbert Melendez (Lost to Eddie Alvarez via split decision)
It is really hard to grade this performance. Melendez was sharp in the first round. I thought he missed an opportunity to really get on Alvarez after he blew him up with the counter right elbow in the first round, but it's hard to criticize him for that seeing how much he gassed later in the fight. Maybe he had concerns over endurance heading in and didn't want to waste that energy early. Either way you slice this, though, it's not good. The man is 1-3 in the UFC since coming over as the Strikeforce champion. High level of competition, close fights, split decision results -- whatever. There's no way to sugarcoat that record. It's a disappointment.
(C-minus) Cain Velasquez (Lost to Fabricio Werdum via submission, 2:13 R3)
Take nothing from Werdum, but this wasn't Cain Velasquez. It just wasn't. The layoff clearly had an effect on him. If you want to partially blame Velasquez for that (perhaps not acclimating himself to the altitude as much as he should have), that's fair, but a 600-day layoff is a 600-day layoff. It's a challenge. You can play "what if" all day, but I will say I thought Velasquez gave Werdum's guard too much credit. Yes, it's dangerous. But there were times he could have followed Werdum to the floor -- it's not like he was dominating the standup as it was. It's hard to say though, because again, this just wasn't Velasquez at his best. If the UFC does an immediate rematch, I'm actually OK with that.
(F) Nate Marquardt (Lost to Kelvin Gastelum via TKO, 5:00 R2)
Marquardt was in a fight, but he wasn't really "in" it. He made it 10 minutes, which I guess could be considered an achievement, but he appeared timid throughout this middleweight bout and was basically relegated to throwing almost-defensive counter right hands in the face of Gastelum's pressure. This matchup didn't look good for Marquardt on paper, and it looked even worse in action. He's not who he once was. Not even close.