WATCH: Werdum, Browne camps nearly brawl after UFC 203 match

Nissi Icasiano

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WATCH: Werdum, Browne camps nearly brawl after UFC 203 match
Fabricio Werdum fires a kick at the trainer of Travis Browne following a post-fight verbal exchange

MANILA, Philippines – Former heavyweight titleholder Fabricio Werdum might have picked up a unanimous decision victory over Travis Browne in their rematch at UFC 203 on Saturday, September 10 (Sunday Manila time), but things got heated between both camps before the official announcement of the winner.

Edmond Tarverdyan, the trainer of Browne and ex-UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, angrily approached Werdum and shouted at him to “shut the f*** up.”

It was Tarverdyan’s fuming response after Werdum taunted the crowd with a fake-crying gesture.

As Tarverdyan got close to Werdum, the 39-year-old Brazilian pushed him back with a soft front kick, which almost unleashed another round chaos inside the Octagon.

A full-blown melee was avoided as UFC officials and security intervened and ordered both teams to exit the cage before the situation could escalate. 

According to Werdum, he reacted the way he did to simply keep the Glendale Fighting Club head coach at a safe range. 

“The coach comes in and he says, ‘Shut up your mouth, motherf—-er. I said, ‘What?’ For me he’s [calling my mom a whore]. I just keep the distance,” Werdum explained during the post-fight press conference. “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.”

Werdum won for the seventh time in his last 8 UFC appearances by outpointing Browne as all 3 cageside judges saw it in his favor with the scores of 29-28, 29-27 and 30-27.

The ex-UFC heavyweight kingpin landed a flying sidekick at the start of the contest that set an immediate tone of the scheduled 3-round bout for Werdum. 

An overhand right from Werdum injured one of the fingers on Browne’s right hand later in the first round, resulting in a bizarre pause as the latter asked referee Gary Copeland to stop the action. 

“The referee is there to stop the fight or keep it going. He didn’t stop the fight. It’s not my job. I just did my job and just fight. I saw he turned his body. I stopped after that. When the referee said stop the fight, I stopped. I saw his bone. I don’t understand why they didn’t stop the fight,” Werdum said about the incident. 

Over the next two rounds, Browne rarely used his right hand and spent the majority of his time eating various strikes from Werdum.

With the impressive triumph over Browne, Werdum stressed that he deserves a second meeting against Stipe Miocic, who defeated him for the gold-plated strap via first-round knockout last May.

Miocic successfully defended the UFC heavyweight title for the first time by finishing Alistair Overeem in the main event of the same pay-per-view card, where Werdum thumped Browne.

“Before the fight [against Miocic], I had a 6-fight winning streak. I think it’s my turn again. He got a good punch, but I’m [ranked number one]. It’s normally the first ranked [that gets a title shot]. I think it’s fair. I want to fight in Cleveland again because the guys booed me and I love this,” Werdum expressed.

However, UFC president Dana White shot down the idea of a rematch between Miocic and Werdum as he is not satisfied with the Brazilian’s performance.

“I didn’t love that fight,” White said. “I don’t know if that fights warrants a title shot, but we’ll see how this thing plays out.” – Rappler.com

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