Strikeforce heavyweight Fabricio Werdum (14-4-1) is ready to return to the cage after a long lay-off since his “Submission of the Year” win over Fedor Emelianenko.
Speaking to Tatame.com, Werdum is excited for the upcoming World Grand Prix tournament and is set to face Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem in the opening round. The Brazilian feels the result will end like it did in their first meeting back in 2006 at a Pride event with Werdum getting the submission victory.
The expectations are as high as they can get. Being trained I can fight anyone. I’ve changed my mind.
“Before I entered there thinking about my opponent, now I get there thinking of me, how I’ll get to him and what I can do. We both evolved a lot. Overeem evolved a lot on the floor and he’s stronger and more experienced. When we fought in 2006, I pretend to do it for a while, fooled him a bit (laughs). Now I’m training a lot my bang but it still isn’t good for me to bang with him. The guy has just won K-1, so I’ll try to go for the ground, even because he was training his bang a lot and he didn’t have enough time to improve his ground game for this fight with me.”
“The fight will be very tactic, it’ll be like the one of 2006 and I’ll catch him again, you can bet on it. I’ll beat him with my game plan and smartness. The longer it gets, the better it is for be because he has a background that proves he’s not resistant. I’ll tire him up, bring him to the ground and finish the fight.”
Werdum also gives his picks for the rest of the tournament so be sure to check out the rest of the interview at Tatame.com.