Fabricio Werdum wasn’t very pleased with all the “mean” backlash he received after he pulled out of a last-minute replacement fight against Stipe Miocic — which was supposed to go down this Saturday (Feb. 6, 2016) at UFC 196 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Admitting to feeling sad with all the negative press, “Vai Cavalo” still doesn’t regret his decision. Even if it forced Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to rearrange fight cards.
During a recent stop at The MMA Hour, the UFC heavyweight champion talked about the multiple injures that ultimately forced him to bow out. He also did his best to clear up any confusion regarding his injuries being too severe to fight Miocic, but not Cain.
“I have two injuries. The foot injury, I fight with Miocic, Velasquez or anybody, no problem. But my back hurt a lot, with my back injury, I wouldn’t fight Miocic or Velasquez. I didn’t have a good feeling for the fight with this injury. My foot injury, I got an X-ray, and it’s not broken, it’s a small fracture. It’s not nothing, but you can’t give 100-percent. I don’t kick for two weeks. For two weeks I had zero kicks to the right side.”
As far as a return date, Fabricio will visit his doctor in a couple of days to see when he can return to training.
That said, when he does return, Werdum doesn’t expect to face Velasquez right away, as the former division kingpin is scheduled to undergo back surgery. That means he will likely defend his belt against Stipe or maybe Ben Rothwell, who made a case for himself after submitting Josh Barnett this past weekend (Jan. 30) at UFC on FOX 18.
“I don’t know when Cain has a time to come back, maybe he will have a surgery today, I think. He’ll need one or two months to recover to start training again. So it will be hard to fight Cain in the next one. Maybe Miocic will be waiting, and Ben, too. It’s not my decision it’s UFC. I don’t have the options. They guys never will ask me what I want. They just ask If I will fight this guy and I say, ‘okay.’ I’m just waiting.”
Fabricio also took the time to rub salt on some wounds, as he reminded Junior dos Santos, Andrei Arlovski and the aforementioned Barnett of the dangers of focusing their trash talk on a fighter — in this case, Werdum — when you’re lined up to face someone else.
Something they learned the hard way, as each of lost their previous bouts, derailing their respective championship dreams.