It's certainly not a certainty.
But after breaking Cain Velasquez's will, and taking his UFC heavyweight title Saturday night at UFC 188 in front of 21,000 Mexican fans who were ready to blow the roof off Arena Ciudad de Mexico in celebration of a Velasquez victory, Werdum's name absolutely belongs in the conversation.
For the past fews years, the debate was whether Fedor Emelianenko, long acknowledged as MMA's all-time best heavyweight, had ceded the honor to Velasquez.
Now Werdum has submitted them both.
Those arguing against Werdum have some solid ammunition: Losses like a memorably bad performance against Alistair Overeem in Strikeforce and a boring UFC 70 bout against Andrei Arlovski come to mind.