Former UFC heavyweight champion, Fabricio Werdum, could be the next star to jump ship once his contract with the UFC is up. As the Brazilian jiu-jitsu blackbelt told Combate, he feels like he’s not getting the treatment he deserves from the company.
“Once my contract is up, I don’t know if I’ll renew it,” Werdum said. “Many things can happen but I’ll say this. I’m 100% a company man, be it a sponsor or an organization, I’m the kind of guy people can always count on. However, when it’s not reciprocal, there’s no way I can be the company man. When I’m happy, I do everything for things to turn out the best way they can, but when I’m unhappy, and I’m not happy at all with the UFC, at the moment, it’s hard to be like that.
“I’m kind of bummed out, after all this time fighting, I consider myself a veteran, I’m 39 after all. I started out a little late, in my 20’s, but I still feel like a veteran. I intend to fight for two or three more years, we always say that, but we can never really stop. I can’t confirm anything about the contract. I just want to do the right thing, maybe I’ll get a better proposal from another company once my contract is up, I don’t know, I haven’t gotten any for now. Who knows, maybe in the future, if I start being happy again in the organization I work for, maybe I’ll stay or maybe I’ll leave, or maybe I’ll just stop. So there’s a lot that could happen.”
Fabricio Werdum lost the heavyweight title by knockout to Stipe Miocic, at UFC 198 in May. He bounced back from the loss with an unanimous decision win over Travis Browne, at UFC 203 in September. Werdum was recently removed from his position as the UFC’s Spanish-language commentary role after an Instagram post that was critical of the Reebok deal.
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