While many people were excited at the announcement of the upcoming Stipe Miocic vs Daniel Cormier Heavyweight title fight — which is set to go down at UFC 226 on July 7, 2018 in Las Vegas — there were a few that weren’t as thrilled.
Among them was undoubtedly Fabricio Werdum, the massive big man who was expected to get the next crack at dethroning the man he knocked off the 265-pound throne back at UFC 198.
During a recent interview on The MMA Hour, Stipe relayed a message for the towering Brazilian.
“Don’t be mad at me, it’s not my decision. I love fighting, love what I do. I’m ready for this fight, I am training like a mad man and will come out guns blazing and he can wait until the fight is done.”
In other words: Hate the game, not the player.
Meanwhile, in the 205-pound division Alexander Gustafsson seemed to be the front-runner to get a rematch against “DC,” though he will now have to wait until late in the year if he wants another shot at the strap.
Cormier also had a message for the highly-upset “Mauler,” telling him he was too slow to the draw and a do-over between them isn’t that appealing —business wise — anyways.
“Too late. Like, what are you doing? You wait until the fight is already announced to say something? It’s too late, Alex. What are you doing? Why didn’t you say something before?” asked the champion.
“Maybe he was doing it out of respect from having to win. Look, I will go rematch him afterwards but this opportunity is way too big to pass up for a rematch with Alexander Gustafsson, when we really didn’t do anything. We didn’t really do business. It’s crazy how people, I get so many tweets about me fearing Alex, well damn guys then buy his pay-per-views and make him much more appealing. For a guy that has crazy following that support him, it is unreal how many people actually pay to watch him fight,” he concluded.
This one is on you, fans.
For Gus — who lost to Daniel at UFC 192 — getting a rematch against Cormier will now be even harder to come by, as the clock is ticking on “DC’s” career. Which means if the towering Swede suffers a loss in the interim, he chance at fighting Cormier again go out the window.
As for Werdum, he could get another crack at the 265-pound strap should Miocic pull out the “W,” but he will have to win one more fight to secure his shot. Late last night, “Vai Cavalo” revealed he had met with UFC president Dana White and things went pretty well.
I have a great meeting with @danawhite thank you
— Fabricio Werdum (@FabricioWerdum) January 29, 2018