Former UFC champion Fabricio Werdum is set to welcome Alexander Gustafsson into the heavyweight division when they face each other on July 25 in “Fight Island.” And apparently, there is a bit of history between the two, dating back to around 2012.
In a recent conversation with Sherdog, the 42-year-old Brazilian recounted a sparring session with Gustafsson that went wrong and led to some tension afterward.
“It happened around eight years ago when I went to train wrestling at Mark Munoz’s academy,” he recalled. When I arrived there, Travis Browne and Gustafsson were doing an MMA sparring session coordinated by his trainer, who invited me to join them. I imagined the trainer would do some kind of rotation sparring, but he put me in the middle with both coming in sequence,”
“Of course it was not fair. First I did it with Browne, later with Gustafsson and again with Browne and again with Gustafsson,” he continued. “In that second sparring session, Gustafsson opened a cut on my nose, then I grabbed his neck in a Thai clinch and hit a knee in his face, which opened a big cut.
“I imagine he got around five stitches in there. Of course, Gustafsson and his trainer got angry with me, said a couple of bad words and the sparring didn’t finish in a good atmosphere.”
As a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and grappling specialist, Werdum was candid enough to lay out his game plan for the upcoming fight, especially since he’s getting some extra help.
“I don’t have a problem talking about tactics,” he said. “Gustafsson knows I want to take him down and that’s no secret. And I’ll take him down and submit him. I live on the same street as Lyoto Machida, and he is helping me a lot concerning approach and distance for this fight.”
Werdum is looking to break a two-fight skid. He last competed at UFC 249 in May, where he lost to Aleksei Oleinik via split decision.