Fabricio Werdum's greatest sin? Being a little too sensible, and way too honest

If Fabricio Werdum were trying to make himself a pariah, I doubt he could have done it this fast. Any intentional action meant to make fight fans mad at him – say, publicly dumping the UFC heavyweight title in the trash, or criticizing all those who watch his fights as pencil-necked geeks – would have been cheered as classic pro wrestling-style gimmickry. Only the exercise of agency and caution could make people this upset, this quickly.

Part of Werdum’s problem is poor communication. The other part is poor timing.

After former UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez 13-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC) announced on Sunday that he was withdrawing from the title-fight rematch with current champ Werdum (20-5-1 MMA, 8-2 UFC) at UFC 196, the UFC swiftly moved to announce heavyweight contender Stipe Miocic (14-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) as Velasquez’s replacement for the Feb. 6 pay-per-view event.

And that’s how things stayed for almost a full 24-hour period. Trouble is, that gave us just enough time to mourn for Velasquez, celebrate for Miocic, and adjust our thinking for this new reality.

Honestly, it was not a bad reality, either. Werdum vs. Miocic for the heavyweight strap? Hashtag would watch. It quieted concerns about the immediate rematch nature of the original fight, plus took a challenger with a lot of momentum from a win still fresh in our memories and gave him the shot he deserved sooner rather than later.

But then, just as we were getting re-psyched for the new fight, Werdum told us to forget it – he was hurt too. He’d hurt his toe and also his back, he explained. And while you’d think that a withdrawal based on two injuries rather than one would make us more sympathetic, it seems to have had the opposite effect, perhaps creating the impression that he was more banged up than truly injured, or that he was simply naming off body parts that didn’t feel good as a way of justifying his decision.

Where Werdum really went wrong, however, was in saying that he would have stayed in the fight had Velasquez not withdrawn – and maybe also if he didn’t have a title to lose.

Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum

“If Cain was going to fight, I was still going to face him,” Werdum said. “There’s a history between us due to our previous fight. … What weighed a lot was that, in my career, it took a long time to get here, to get the belt, to be the champion. … I’m 38 now. I’m the champion. I’m feeling great in this moment of my life. But I can’t risk a 20-year career due to my pride. I can’t.”

And, logically, that’s a completely reasonable explanation. At least, you know, the second part. The first part, the stuff about him planning on fighting hurt as long as it was against Velasquez, is the kind of thing you shouldn’t say even if you’re thinking it, because you’ve essentially just told us you’re too hurt to fight one guy, but not too hurt to fight a different guy. And, if you’ve been paying attention, you should know by now that fight fans love nothing so much as they love to accuse a professional tough guy of being scared to fight.

As for the risks and rewards, that’s where Werdum made some sense. Even fellow UFC heavyweight Josh Barnett had to admit as much, even if he also thinks Werdum “should have come up with a better excuse.”

And no, just telling us that you think the situation is a raw deal for you doesn’t cut it, apparently. That’s because when it comes to withdrawing from a prize fight the only acceptable explanation seems to be one involving debilitating injury. Even that won’t shield you from all criticism, but it will at least turn down the heat.

But pointing out that the situation was changed without your consent, and in a way that you feel is unfavorable to you, that’s apparently not good enough. For some reason, we think that fighters who agreed weeks in advance to face one opponent should therefore be obligated to face any opponent, and without any extra time to adjust to the change.

We also think that fighters who have worked their entire careers to get into the most lucrative possible position should be willing to risk it all, at any time, because of something that someone else did.

It’s asking a lot, maybe even too much. It’s the place where the rhetoric of this sport meets its reality. It’s the intersection of the “anyone, anywhere” mentality and the cold, hard business facts of life as a professional fighter.

We like our tough guys with an attitude in this sport. What we don’t like, it seems, is an abundance of sense.

For more on UFC 196, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.