Fabricio Werdum almost died on first day of training in Mexico

Fabricio Werdum decided to move his training camp to Mexico in preparation for a heavyweight championship fight with Cain Velasquez on Nov. 15, but a bad choice almost ended his life.

Werdum moved to Nevado de Toluca with Rafael Cordeiro, Felipe Werdum, Renato “Babalu” Sobral and eight other coaches and sparring partners, and their first day of training almost became their last, as they were poisoned by carbon monoxide from a gasoline generator.

“It was terrible,” Werdum told MMAFighting.com. “We came to Nevado de Toluca to train, and we didn’t see the house before renting it. There was no power, nothing, and it was really cold there. I was there with 12 other guys from my team, and they got us a gasoline generator to get power. They usually left the generator outside the house, but put this one inside the house.

“We were training inside the house, had dinner and went to bed. They didn’t tell us to turn that thing off before sleeping. I woke us in the middle of the night with a huge headache, nausea, and couldn’t get out of bed. Everyone was dizzy. My brother got out of his bed and managed to turn that thing off. We almost died from poisoning.

“We went to the hospital, everybody throwing up and with diarrhea. The doctor said that we would have died in two hours if nobody had turned that thing off.”

Werdum and his team moved to another house in Jiquipilco, 60 miles away from Nevado de Toluca, and the Brazilian heavyweight now laughs at the dangerous situation he’s been through.

“What doesn’t kill make you stronger. That made me stronger,” Werdum said with a laugh. “We’re fine now. That was a huge scare. We almost died. Imagine the headlines: ‘Werdum moves his camp to Mexico and dies with his whole team.’ We were searching for a breath of fresh air and almost died  from carbon monoxide poisoning [laughs].”

Werdum, who coached the Latin American version of The Ultimate Fighter reality show in opposite to heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, headlines UFC 180 in Arena Ciudad de Mexico on Nov. 15.

Fabricio Werdum decided to move his training camp to Mexico in preparation for a heavyweight championship fight with Cain Velasquez on Nov. 15, but a bad choice almost ended his life.

Werdum moved to Nevado de Toluca with Rafael Cordeiro, Felipe Werdum, Renato “Babalu” Sobral and eight other coaches and sparring partners, and their first day of training almost became their last, as they were poisoned by carbon monoxide from a gasoline generator.

“It was terrible,” Werdum told MMAFighting.com. “We came to Nevado de Toluca to train, and we didn’t see the house before renting it. There was no power, nothing, and it was really cold there. I was there with 12 other guys from my team, and they got us a gasoline generator to get power. They usually left the generator outside the house, but put this one inside the house.

“We were training inside the house, had dinner and went to bed. They didn’t tell us to turn that thing off before sleeping. I woke us in the middle of the night with a huge headache, nausea, and couldn’t get out of bed. Everyone was dizzy. My brother got out of his bed and managed to turn that thing off. We almost died from poisoning.

“We went to the hospital, everybody throwing up and with diarrhea. The doctor said that we would have died in two hours if nobody had turned that thing off.”

Werdum and his team moved to another house in Jiquipilco, 60 miles away from Nevado de Toluca, and the Brazilian heavyweight now laughs at the dangerous situation he’s been through.

“What doesn’t kill make you stronger. That made me stronger,” Werdum said with a laugh. “We’re fine now. That was a huge scare. We almost died. Imagine the headlines: ‘Werdum moves his camp to Mexico and dies with his whole team.’ We were searching for a breath of fresh air and almost died  from carbon monoxide poisoning [laughs].”

Werdum, who coached the Latin American version of The Ultimate Fighter reality show in opposite to heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, headlines UFC 180 in Arena Ciudad de Mexico on Nov. 15.