Fabricio Werdum No Longer Happy Fighting for UFC | MMAWeekly.com

The rift between Fabricio Werdum and the UFC appears to be appears to be widening. The split between the two sides developed when Werdum publicly expressed his disapproval of the UFC’s apparel sponsorship deal with Reebok.

Werdum posted a photo of himself on social media wearing a UFC fighter uniform. Instead of the usual Reebok logo, however, the image had been altered to display the universally recognized Nike swoosh. He did so in a protest of the apparel deal, which forces fighters to wear the Reebok gear and not display other sponsors, a move which he and many others have said cost the fighters varying degrees of sponsorship income.

That didn’t sit well with company officials, who told MMAWeekly.com, “Due to Fabricio Werdum’s recent comments directed at a valued UFC partner, we will no longer utilize Werdum in a broadcast role on UFC Network in Latin America. While we respect an athlete’s right to voice his opinion, we deem the manner in which Werdum chose to do so unacceptable.”

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That was in October. Werdum encountered another uncomfortable situation with UFC officials when he was denied status as a guest fighter at the recent UFC 205 blockbuster event at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

“I feel embarrassed to say that, but I was there in New York to talk to sponsors and asked to be a guest fighter, but they denied me,” Werdum said on the Resenha Black Belt podcast, as translated by AgFight. “My manager needed to buy me a ticket for the event. I did not like it. Imagine, a former champion without a ticket.

“I’m not happy, I do not have that thing anymore at the biggest MMA event in the world. I felt excluded, I’m not happy.”

It’s unclear if the incident at UFC 205 had anything to do with Werdum’s status within the organization or if it was simply a matter of not having enough availability at an event of such magnitude. 

Either way, Werdum isn’t pleased with his current status within the organization.

“Once my contract is up, I don’t know if I’ll renew it. Many things can happen, but I’ll say this. I’m 100-percent a company man, be it a sponsor or an organization, I’m the kind of guy people can always count on. However, when it’s not reciprocal, there’s no way I can be the company man,” Werdum said in a recent interview with Combate. “When I’m happy, I do everything for things to turn out the best way they can, but when I’m unhappy, and I’m not happy at all with the UFC, at the moment, it’s hard to be like that.”

Werdum is currently slated to face fellow former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez in a rematch at UFC 207 on Dec. 30. in Las Vegas. It’s unclear what his plans are beyond that fight, but Werdum doesn’t appear ready to stop fighting anytime soon, even if that means he may eventually have to fight elsewhere.

“I intend to fight for two or three more years, we always say that, but we can never really stop. I can’t confirm anything about the contract. I just want to do the right thing, maybe I’ll get a better proposal from another company once my contract is up, I don’t know. I haven’t gotten any for now. Who knows? Maybe in the future, if I start being happy again in the organization I work for, maybe I’ll stay, or maybe I’ll leave, or maybe I’ll just stop.”

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