Oh, Fabricio Werdum…
Not too long ago you were the one of most lovable heavyweight champions in UFC history. The adorable (or obnoxious) Werdum face was, if not beloved, at least respected by fans across the globe. But the last year and a half has not been kind to Werdum’s relationship with MMA fandom.
His knockout lose to Stipe Miocic back in May of 2016, followed quickly by an increased awareness of his relationship with genocidal dictator Ramzan Kadyrov, had long time fans of the sport changing their tune on ‘the man who beat Fedor’. Then, Werdum front-kicked Edmond Tarverdyan after his Travis Brown fight (which was actually kind of awesome, let’s be real). After leaving that incident unpunished, he got into some hot water with UFC brass for telling Reebok to “suck his balls” on Instagram (again, kinda awesome). He lost his Spanish language commentary gig for that. He followed that up by repeatedly calling anyone within earshot a gay slur, including JDS (substantially less cool). And while all this was a bit nutty, it was all somehow dismissed or laughed off.
But more recently, he has truly amped up the douche factor. First, by doubling down on his support of Ramzan Kadyrov despite numerous reports of the Chechen leader systematically imprisoning and killing gay men in his country.
Plus, Werdum’s own behavior has became more erratic. He challenged Tony Ferguson to a fight during a UFC 216 media luncheon (Werdum being threatened with an ankle pick may still be one of the most MMA things to have ever happen). And now finally, Fabricio Werdum, former UFC Heavyweight Champion, is on the streets of Sydney, Australia throwing a boomerang at Colby Covington. Oh, how the mighty have fallen…
Here is Fabricio Werdum before UFC Fight Night 121, desperately trying to talk about his opponent Marcin Tybura, and convince everyone he isn’t dwelling on how much he fucked up. He isn’t very successful:
The audacity of Fabricio Werdum to talk about a generation of fighter’s lack of respect is hilarious. The most MMA part of this is that Werdum is 100% sincere. He wouldn’t see the hypocrisy in his statement if you diagrammed it out for him. In his mind, throwing a boomerang at someone for talking shit is the moral high ground.
May God bless this terrible, dumb, amazing sport.
Update: It seems the Sydney police have charged Fabricio Werdum and give him a court summons for assault. #BoomerangGateis the gift that keeps on giving.
