Werdum mocked Overeem, but praised his rival. Photo: Reproduction
Without fighting since September 2016, Fabricio Werdum will only return to the octagon on July 8th, when he will face alistair overeem at UFC 213, in Las Vegas (USA), but the Brazilian has already started to spice up the confrontation. In a good-humored way, the former Ultimate heavyweight champion praised his next opponent, but didn't miss the opportunity to mock the physical transformations in the Dutchman's body.
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“He’s a little calmer, smarter. He's not taking risks like he used to and he's not as strong as he used to be. He's not having that special breakfast, which is very important (laughs). You can clearly see that his body is different. In Pride he was very strong, in Strikeforce he was even stronger. I'm going to fight an intelligent fight, a good strategy, to knock out or catch Overeem. I don't worry too much about him, but we have to know what his strengths or weaknesses are. His ground isn't very good, we can see in his fight Stipe Miocic, he had no guard to defend himself and was knocked out. Just be careful, he changes bases all the time. We are looking into this a lot. Master Rafael Cordeiro is working on this so he can catch Overeem's mistakes”, he declared, in an interview with the website 'Combate.com'.
The confrontation is a trilogy, as the two fighters have already faced each other on two occasions. The first of them was in the distant year of 2006, when the Brazilian won by submission, in the now extinct Pride. The rematch took place five years later, in 2011, at Strikeforce. On that occasion, 'The Reem' got revenge and defeated Werdum by unanimous decision from the judges. Now, Werdum wants to break the tie to prove who is the best.
“The expectation is one of the best, I haven’t fought in a while. My fight against Cain Velásquez was cancelled, as was the one against Ben Rothwell. I hope they don't cancel this one (laughs). It will be my third fight against Overeem. It's 1 to 1. I fought against him in Pride and submitted him. Then we fought at Strikeforce, in a warm fight, it wasn't very good and he beat me. This is to see who is the best. I'm sure I'll win. He is a tough opponent and that is what will take me to what I want, which is the belt”, said the gaucho, who added that he hopes to return to fight for the title after his next challenge.
“I saw him getting his blue belt, he’s doing self-defense. He said he always had a lot of respect for jiu-jitsu, but that's not what he said a while ago, but if he's doing it, good for him. I don't see a big problem on the ground. I'm not trying to underestimate him, he has a very good guillotine. It's a fight that draws attention, people really want to see it. If I win, I'll fight for the belt. I don't know if he will have that opportunity by beating me. I’m going to knock him out with a kick to the stomach (laughs)”, he concluded.
At 39 years old, Werdum is coming off a victory over Travis Browne at UFC 203, in September 2016. This was the Brazilian's only fight after losing the belt to Miocic in May 2016, when he was knocked out by the current champion at UFC 198, in Curitiba (PR). Previously, he had won the interim heavyweight title by knocking out Mark Hunt at UFC 180, in 2014, and unified the belts by submitting the previously linear champion Cain Velazquez at UFC 188, in June 2015.
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