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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Fabricio Werdum picked up the biggest win of his career last June, submitting Fedor Emelianenko on Showtime to snap "The Last Emperor's" decade-long unbeaten streak. Now prepping to return in June in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, Werdum's looking ahead to another goal now that the UFC has purchased Strikeforce: a rematch with Junior Dos Santos.
Werdum was knocked out by "Cigano" at UFC 90 in Dos Santos' debut, a loss that derailed Werdum's hopes at gaining a title shot in the UFC and led to his release after a contract dispute. The UFC didn't want to pay him what he had been making after the knockout loss, and Werdum admits he wasn't in a great state of mind at the time, and the release came about due to that.
"That time Cigano defeated me it was the first time I was knocked out, I wasn't [accepting] it," Werdum said in an interview with Tatame.com. "Then I had that [contract] discussion with UFC, it wasn't that we argued, but I was upset for losing the way it happened. I had been defeated before, but on a judge's decision, this was the only time I was knocked out. So I wasn’t on a good state of mind because I had been defeated, I was far from my family.
"I'm not saying Cigano didn't deserve it, because then he went there and kept winning. I'd be surprised if he had beaten me down and then lost. He went there and proved himself to be pretty good. I want to win this GP, to earn a belt, because I've never won one, and fight UFC's champion. If it's Cigano, [it would] be a dream coming true. To do this unifier fight and against Cigano, a rematch, it'd be perfect."
First thing's first, and Werdum returns in June to meet Alistair Overeem. But with Strikeforce delaying the quarterfinal bouts from April to June, Werdum's not entirely happy about that aspect of it, and with the UFC purchasing Strikeforce, he's not entirely sure if the tournament will be played out to completion.
"I don't like [the delay]," Werdum said. "If it was up to me, I'd like to fight four times a year, that's the ideal by me, but it happened that they postponed the fight and I'll get there being off for a year, because I had my elbow surgery and I'm fully recovered from it... It's too much, it's too much not to fight for an entire year. It'll be an exact year since I last fought, and in my mind June is the months on which I've beaten Fedor, so it's my month, it's a special month, so that's my thought.
"I guess [the Grand Prix] will go on until the end, but as Strikeforce has been [purchased] by UFC, I don't know if it'll actually happen, if there'll be a next round or if they'll cancel it... I don't know what will happen, I don't know what's on their mind. I said it a while ago: I intend to win this GP, then challenge the top guy form UFC. I actually said that in some interviews, but people said I couldn't do that since it's two separate organizations, the events are each other contender, but now it's possible because the events belong to the same organization. UFC purchased Strikeforce, so it's possible they match this GP's champion with UFC's champion.
For Werdum to get his rematch, he'll need to get past this Grand Prix field, and Dos Santos needs to defeat both Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez in consecutive fights, a feat Werdum believes his fellow Brazilian will accomplish.
"UFC is the best event on earth, Strikeforce was growing a lot too, so it's the two greatest events and my goal is that: my main goal is to beat Overeem, get to the next phase, and I've beaten Overeem in 2006 in Pride's GP on the first phase of the event, so things seems to be conspiring in my favor," said Werdum. "It'll be in June, my month, so things are good for me. So, I want to win this GP and then do this super fight against whoever UFC champion is. I don't know if it'll be Velasquez, Dos Santos, or other guy... Whoever is the UFC champion is the one I want to fight, that's what I want to do. I want to unify the titles, like it happens [in] boxing."
"Cigano's coming from a great sequence of wins. He proved he's really good in what he does, so I think if he strikes with Brock Lesnar, he beats the guy up. And about him fighting [Cain] Velasquez I guess it's the same thing: if he sticks to striking, defend the takedowns, which will be a hard task, because Velasquez will manage to take Cigano down at least once, so Cigano has to work his guard, work his feet on the groin, and knows when to stand-up and do it quickly, I think he'll win. I believe Cigano wins it standing up, and he'll do also a great work on the ground and pound. I'm Brazilian so sure, I cheer for him to win."
Penick's Analysis: Werdum has a very good chance of getting himself back into the UFC, but it may not be in the scenario he'd like to see play out. He's got a very tough test in Alistair Overeem, despite the fact that he's beaten him once before. And after that, Bigfoot Silva remains a tough test, again despite the fact that he holds a win over him. If the Grand Prix finishes out, he could be there at the end, but even if he's not he could get back into the UFC fold. As for Dos Santos, he certainly could get past Lesnar and Velasquez, but that's no easy task either. Ultimately, I think he'll have a chance to rematch Dos Santos down the line, but they'll each have lost a fight by the time they meet again.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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