Usually when a fighter steps into an octagon to compete in the UFC, they will only be competing in a single fight at the event. For the former UFC Heavyweight Champion Fabricio Werdum though at UFC 203, the fighter nearly had to compete twice at the same event.
First, Werdum defeated Travis Browne by unanimous decision in a rematch from their first encounter at UFC On Fox 11 in 2014. That fight was marred in some controversy after Browne seemingly called a time out in the first round to deal with a hand injury. That is not the fight we want to be discussing right now because the fight we want to talk about happened after the Werdum/Browne battle as Werdum through and landed a kick to the coach of Browne, Edmond Tarverdyan.
According to Fabricio though in at the post-fight press conference, he was hearing plenty of expletives from the coach and then the coach started coming at him.
“I don’t know his name, but he said, ‘Hey, shut your mouth, son of a (expletive)…I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Mother(expletive), shut your mouth, mother(expletive).’ I didn’t do the (full) kick. I just kept the distance.”
The funny thing about the whole situation is that the former heavyweight champion did not know who Coach Edmund is, as Coach Edmund is the longtime coach of former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey.
“I know he’s a boxing coach, and I saw in his eyes he wanted to punch my face…And I just kept the distance. So that’s it. But he came (forward) first; he said a lot of bad things. My mom said never say bad things to nobody. But he started.”
Even though the fracas between Werdum and Coach Edmund left a sour taste in a lot of people’s mouths, neither Werdum, Browne or Coach Edmund is likely to face any discipline at this time, at least from the Ohio Athletic Commission.
