Fresh off a win over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in June, Fabricio Werdum was contemplating sitting and waiting for a chance at the UFC heavyweight gold, but he’s tired of being on the sidelines.
Werdum made a convincing case that he should be near a title shot when he submitted Nogueira in the headline bout of UFC on Fuel 10, marking his third win in a row since returning to the UFC in 2012.
The only problem for Werdum is that he sat out for almost a year waiting for the Nogueira bout because the two fighters served as coaches on Ultimate Fighter Brasil season 2. In addition to that, the next heavyweight title fight between Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos is already set for October.
That means Werdum would probably end up sitting out for another eight or nine months at least by the time he could even potentially get a title shot. Plus the UFC hasn’t even named him as the clear-cut choice as No. 1 contender.
So instead of sitting out and watching the division move on without him, Werdum recently met with UFC president Dana White to discuss his options.
In that meeting, Werdum had one name on his mind for who he wanted to face later this year inside the Octagon—former Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix winner Daniel Cormier.
“Werdum was in my office two days ago, that’s probably where the rumor came from. That’s who he wants to fight,” White answered on Thursday when asked about a potential fight against Cormier. “So we’ll see what happens.”
Cormier is currently in the process of cutting weight to eventually make it down to light heavyweight, but in the interim he wants to stay busy and take another fight in the heavyweight division.
There may not be a bigger fight amongst the contenders right now than Cormier against Werdum.
A former two-time Olympian, Cormier is still undefeated in his MMA career. He made his UFC debut earlier this year when he picked up a unanimous decision victory over former heavyweight champion Frank Mir at UFC on Fox 7 in April.
White made it clear that Werdum asked for the fight, but as of yet there has been no official word if the promotion is interested in making it happen.
Currently, neither fighter has anything scheduled, and a showdown between Cormier and Werdum could be a perfect co-main event for the UFC 166 card that will be headlined by the heavyweight title bout between Velasquez and Dos Santos.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted
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