Fabricio Werdum Wants Title Shot After Dominant UFC Sydney Victory
Former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum is coming off a decision win over Marcin Tybura in the main event of Saturday’s UFC Sydney (Fight Night 121) event that took place at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia. This marks the second victory in a 42-day stretch.
As to why he thinks he deserves a title shot? he believes that no other fighter in the division is more deserving.
“I feel for sure I deserve it,” Werdum told MMAjunkie following his unanimous decision win over Marcin Tybura in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 121 headliner. “It’s not just now for this fight and my last fight. I’ve beat a lot of guys – Fedor Emelianenko, Cain Velasquez, Minotauro (Nogueira). I have a history. For 20 years I’ve been fighting.
Not just now. I have two belts in my home. Only one fighter in the world is a jiu-jitsu champion, a submission champion and a UFC champion. It’s me.
I don’t like when I say that, but I know this is true for sure. Given the opportunity I just want to show again. One more belt on my wall at home, I will stop after that. No, no, I’m joking.”
If you recall, this fight came about when Werdum stepped into the bout as a short-notice replacement after beating Walt Harris by 65-second submission at UFC 216 in October. As a result of doing so, he managed to put on another strong performance.
Werdum believes he should be next to challenge current heavyweight king Stipe Miocic. This fight does make sense due to the fact that Werdum lost the title to Miocic by first-round knockout at UFC 198 in May 2016. Since that devastating loss, Werdum has been working toward a rematch ever since.
Keep in mind that it appears that the winner of next month’s UFC 218 co-headliner between Alistair Overeem and Francis Ngannou is likely to be a #1 contender fight.
“I want to fight more,” Werdum said. “Long time ago I’ve been waiting one year for a fight. Why am I waiting like six months, seven months? I want to fight more. I want to fight maybe five times a year. This fight (Alistair) Overeem vs. Francis (Ngannou), I don’t think Francis deserves it yet because he just started (MMA) now. Overeem has a big history, too, but I think I deserve the title shot. I just want the opportunity.”
Werdum made it clear that he would not fight hard-hitting heavyweight Derrick Lewis next. The former UFC heavyweight champion was slated to fight Lewis at UFC 216, but Lewis pulled out of the fight the day of due to an injury.
“I’m very tired because it’s five rounds, five minutes,” Werdum said. “Tybura is a very tough fighter. I know this before. He’s a very young guy. He deserves it. I used my experience there. Everybody saw that. I tried to finish the fight a lot of times. He had good defense.”
