The rivalry between former
UFC heavyweight champions Junior dos
Santos and Fabricio
Werdum was once considered one of the sport’s fiercest.
Advertisement
After spending 15 years taking shots at each other through the
media, dos Santos and Werdum buried the hatchet over three rounds
at
Gamebred Fighting Championship 5 this past September. Despite
losing a spllit decision, Werdum was moved by dos Santos’
respectful post-fight speech and decided to end the rivalry by
inviting “Cigano to participate on his “Dos Nossos” podcast.
“Last year I recorded 65 editions in Florianopolis, where I live,
but it was difficult to bring guests from Rio and Sao Paulo,”
Werdum told Sherdog.com. “Now I’m starting a new phase recording in
a studio in Sao Paulo, and ‘Cigano ‘was the first one I invited.
Even though he’s in the middle of a camp to face Alan
Belcher for the Gamebred heavyweight title, ‘Cigano’
immediately accepted my invitation. It’s going to be historical. Me
and Cigano live [on Feb. 3]
According to Werdum, dos Santos initially asked for a ticket to
come from Florida to Sao Paulo Saturday morning and return home
that same night. That proved to be impossible, so dos Santos
instead will arrive on Friday and return home Sunday morning.
“I can’t wait to get him at the airport. I told him we will recall
every chapter of our rivalry live with the fans and also told him
that we will have to decide who [is the best heavyweight]: me, him
or [Cain] Velasquez. He beat me twice, but lost to Velasquez twice
and won once, and I submitted Velasquez. So we need to decide who
is whose father,” Werdum said with a laugh.
Werdum’s sense of humor has made him a popular listen among
Brazilian fans. His podcast did well in 2023 thanks to the presence
of a number of notable names such as Alex
Pereira, Gilbert
Burns, Lyoto
Machida, Wanderlei
Silva, Rafael
Cordeiro, Mauricio
Rua, Rafael dos
Anjos, Norma
Dumont, Cristiane
Justino, Thiago
Santos, Bruno Silva,
Marcus
Almeida and Wallid
Ismail.
Although he turns 47 years old in July, Werdum guaranteed that he
is not retired yet.
“I asked Gamebred to fight against Roy Nelson,
who just lost to Belcher,” Werdum said. “I offered that idea
because we already fought in the UFC and Nelson is really popular
in the USA, but they offered me a 33-year-old guy named Alex
Nicholson. Since I don’t know who he is, it made no sense to me
to accept, but I’m not done. I´m also open to a grappling
superfight. I would love to face Gordon Ryan
in the rules of grappling with slaps allowed.”