UFC Sydney Recap: Werdum Outworks Tybura

Competing in his second fight in two months, Fabricio Werdum just about had complete control of his bout against Marcin Tybura, which headlined the UFC Fight Night event at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.

Werdum simply outstruck and outworked Tybura in this fight. In fact, Werdum landed 246 strikes, 70 significant, compared to Tybura’s 157 strikes with 22 significant.

But Werdum still gave credit to his opponent for his chin.

“All fights in the UFC are very hard. One punch, one kick, that’s it,” Werdum said.

Tonight’s card saw a couple of records broken. The 13-fight event had a total cage time of 3:04:18, passing the record set by UFC Fight Night: Thompson vs. MacDonald event from June 2016. The June 2016 Fight Night event had a total cage time of 2:54:41. The event also had 10 fights that went the distance, including all six main card bouts, tying four other events.

After about a minute of both men moving around the cage and feeling each other out to open up the main event, Werdum began to land a couple of key combinations, as well as a key right round kick to the body. Some redness began to appear on Tybura’s body about two minutes in. Werdum then applied the pressure, nailing Tybura with a number of punch combinations and making him eat knees.

With about 90 seconds to go, Werdum attempted a single-leg takedown, and while Tybura countered it, Werdum managed to grapple behind Tybura after nearly getting stuffed. Tybura managed to flip Werdum over and grapple him from the back as the clock winded down to end the first.

About 50 seconds into the second, Werdum attempted a flying knee, but it backfired and he stumbled backwards. Fortunately for him, Tybura had to re-group himself. Both men the met in the middle of the Octagon and exchanged strikes. Werudm got in another key combination with about two minutes to go in the second. Werdum rocked Tybura with a flurry of strikes in the closing seconds, but Tybura recovered and saw the end of the round.

Werdum landed a couple of head kicks onto Tybura early on in the third. Werdum looked so aware by the halfway point of the round, while Tybura looked tired out. Werdum caught a kick from Tybura, countered and made him eat another flurry of shots. He even tried to get Tybura to look up before hitting him with a strike. Werdum managed to close the distance and get Tybura’s back to the fence, rocking him with a few knees. Werdum then looked to get a takedown, but Tybura managed to avoid it and break the clinch.

About a minute into round four, Werdum managed to get Tybura down, but Tybura scrambled to get back to his feet. However, Werdum managed to get Tybura by the back and transition to get Tybura’s back to the cage for a few seconds before both returned to the center of the Octagon. Werdum took Tybura down about halfway through the fourth and attempted to get a submission. Tybura managed to scramble back to his feet with about 30 seconds left. Werdum managed to get the fight back to the ground and lock in a guillotine, but the round ended.

Tybura managed to land an overhead shot early on in the fifth, rocking the former heavyweight champion a bit. About 90 seconds in, Werdum made Tybura eat a head kick. The two, slowed down, had brief exchanges until Werdum began to apply more pressure in the final minute of the final round. Tybura continued to unsuccessfully try and land the head kick, but Werdum landed a shot on the jaw with about 10 minutes remaining, and he made Tybura eat a number of strikes until the final horn.

Werdum scored the unanimous decision, earning winning scores of 50-45, 50-45 and 49-46. He has won nine of his last 11.

UFC Sydney Main card (FOX Sports 1, 10 p.m. ET)
Heavyweight: Fabricio Werdum def. Marcin Tybura via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 49-46)
Catchweight (128 lbs.): Jessica Rose-Clark def. Bec Rawlings via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Welterweight: Belal Muhammad def. Tim Means via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Welterweight: Jake Matthews def. Bojan Velickovic via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Middleweight: Elias Theodorou def. Dan Kelly via unanimous decision (30-28, 30-27, 30-26)
Catchweight (150 lbs.): Alexander Volkanovski def. Shane Young via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26)

UFC Sydney Preliminary Card (FOX Sports 1, 8 p.m. ET)
Catchweight (129 lbs.): Ryan Benoit def. Ashkan Mokhtarian via KO (Rd. 3, 2:38)
Lightweight: Nik Lentz def. Will Brooks via submission (guillotine choke) (Rd. 2, 2:05)
Heavyweight: Tai Tuivasa def. Rashad Coulter via KO (Rd. 1, 4:35)
Catchweight (160 lbs.): Frank Camacho def. Damien Brown via split decision (28-29, 30-27, 29-28)

UFC Sydney Early Prelims Card (UFC Fight Pass, 6:30 p.m. ET)
Catchweight (120 lbs.): Nadia Kassem def. Alex Chambers via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 29-27)
Flyweight: Eric Shelton def. def. Jenel Lausa via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-25)
Heavyweight: Adam Wieczorek def. Anthony Hamilton via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)