Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum completed their trilogy in a not-so-anticipated heavyweight matchup on Saturday night in the co-main event of UFC 213 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. With Cain Velasquez still sidelined, the stakes were high in this pivotal bout, as the winner could’ve been clearly next in line for champ Stipe Miocic. But because Overeem vs. Werdum 3 wasn’t too visibly appealing, rising star Francis Ngannou is probably going to fight for the belt if he gets past Junior dos Santos in September.
The first round of the co-feature was almost as close as you’ll get to a 10-10 round, but all three judges sided with “The Reem” in the opening five minutes, presumably because he landed the harder shots — and to be fair, the difference in amount of strikes in round one was only two, with Werdum landing six and Overeem landing four.