Fabricio Werdum is one of the most affable fighters on the UFC roster.
But he’s also a tremendously dangerous athlete who demands respect and when he doesn’t get it, Werdum is not afraid to get physical.
The former UFC heavyweight champion put his name right back into contention when he claimed a unanimous decision victory over Travis Browne for the second time in two years.
The rematch began bizarrely when Browne asked the referee to pause proceedings after he seemingly suffered an injury to his hand
Referee Gary Copeland made the odd decision to temporarily stop the fight to allow Browne be tended to by the cageside doctor. But it was all downhill from there for ‘Hapa’.
Brazil’s Werdum, who lost the heavyweight title when he was knocked out by reigning champion Stipe Miocic in May, went on to claim the fight on all judges’ scorecards but the result was not the element of the bout that had fans talking.
That came with the post-fight skirmish between Werdum and Browne’s coach Edmond Tarverdyan, who is most recognisable from his coaching of former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.
After the fight, Werdum was mocking the crowd, so Browne’s coach says something to him, then this happens #UFC203 pic.twitter.com/L0rKyUeuEL
— Classic UFC Moments (@UFCmoments) September 11, 2016
As Werdum mocked the jeering crowd, Tarverdyan clearly said something to the victor who unwisely decided to throw a Thai-style teep to the cornerman’s body.
“The coach comes in and he says, ‘Shut up your mouth, motherfucker’,” Werdum explained after the bout.
“I said, ‘What?’ For me he’s [calling my mother a whore]. I just keep the distance.
“I know he’s a boxing coach. I could see in his eyes he wanted to punch my face. I just kept the distance, that’s it. He said a lot of bad things. My mom said never say bad things about nobody, but he started it.”
While Werdum was definitely wrong to get involved, it’s pretty disrespectful for a coach to trash-talk a fighter after the final buzzer.
