What do you think was your mistake on this fight?
My mistake was to fight… I was passing by problems, I didn’t want to say to don’t keep giving excuses, my mistake. He got me on the triangle and I don’t know when was the last time that someone got me on that position in Jiu-Jitsu and Sumission’s career, even in training. Nobody ever caught me on this position because I stand up fast. Because of a little injury, my rib cracked when I was going to stand up and I came back. My mistake was to fight, but he did his work and I congratulate him.
–Wagnney Fabiano speaking to Tatame about his loss to Mackens Semerzier.
It’s never a comfortable thing to hear a fighter claim that an injury led to a loss but the upset was so major, especially in the way it ended that it is hard to not fully believe Fabiano that he was battling some sort of injury. I think in order to fully grasp the meaning of the fight we have to follow Semerzier’s career going forward and see what kind of fighter he truly is. Maybe this was a case of an injured rib contributing to an upset or maybe this was a major coming out party for a major star in the division.
But, he does join the list of fighters and writers to discuss a possible UFC/WEC merger. From the same interview:
I have two more fights on the contract, now they’re taking all the athletes to Las Vegas, there’s gonna be a meeting with everybody, and suddenly, we’ll have some surprise from there. They said they’ll talk about the athletes and the event’s future, they may want to take some athletes to the UFC, I don’t know. We don’t know anything until November 1. They talked to me that, when I’m better, they want to put me to fight again, they want me back as soon as possible.
I’m not sure how to read that. Does he mean that the UFC said they may want to take some athletes to the UFC? Or is he simply assuming that could be one reason that the meeting is going to take place? Either way the WEC’s future remains up in the air.