After taking out Travis Browne for the second time at UFC 203 last night (Sat., Sept. 10, 2016) in Cleveland, Ohio (see it again here), Fabricio Werdum almost set off a riot inside the Octagon after he kicked Edmond Tarverdyan — Browne’s head coach — in the midsection.
Thankfully, both camps intervened and held both Fabricio and Edmond back to prevent the incident from escalating further. So what exactly set it off?
According to Werdum’s comments during the post-fight presser (video replay here), it was due to the fact that Edmond threw a couple of not-so nice words his way as a way to disapprove of his mocking the Cleveland crowd.
“His coach come and he said, ‘Hey, shutup motherfucker.’ And for me, okay (talk crap), but not about my mom, you know? I don’t kick him man, I just keep the distance, I know he’s a boxing coach and I saw in his eyes he want to punch my face. And I just keep the distance. But he came to me and said bad things. And my mom say never say bad tings for nobody. But he started it.”
According to MMA Fighting, however, both Werdum and Edmond won’t be facing any disciplinary action from the Ohio State Athletic Commission (OAC) for their actions after the fight.
Everyone left on a positive note,” Bernie Profato said. “They said they respected the commission and assured this would never happen again.”
The tension between the two camps was tense to say the least in the days leading up to the heavyweight collision, as Browne and Werdum got into a war of words during the press-conference staredown (see it). Thankfully, things didn’t get testier following the kick, and both camps — especially Fabricio’s — should be relieved the OAC had mercy on them.
Because as Alistair Overeem can attest to, they could have easily fined them for their actions.
For complete UFC 203 results and coverage click here.