By Guilherme Cruz

Photo UFC

“I’m still crazy, the guy punched me f---- hard”, said Fabricio Werdum over the phone, still in Las Vegas, when talking to TATAME’s crew on the following day of his great win over Roy Nelson. The Brazilian felt sick after the post-fight press conference, but could not hide his happiness for the victory on his return to the UFC.

“When I stood up, my blood pressure dropped and I felt sick. I couldn’t walk after the fight because of the pain. Like four of five elbows he threw at me really caught me, so it hurt but it was a nice win”, says the Brazilian, analyzing his performance.

“I was really happy about my fight. I asked my master (Rafael Cordeiro) how was it, and since he said ‘wow’ too many times, I guess he was happy… I followed the game plan as we had said it, all according to the plan. I was smart when fighting him. Roy Nelson is tough, he doesn’t fall, but I punched him hard. I even threw a spinning back kick (laughs)”, affirmed.

According to Werdum, Ultimate’s stability helped on his performance. “I was really confident, I wasn’t overtrained, even because I was not afraid it would get canceled like it used to happen in Strikeforce”, said, reminding of his duel against Alistair Overeem, in 2011, which was postponed three times.

Werdum showed impressive evolution on the stand-up, applying good knees on the clinch, and says he was surprised by the American’s strength. But it a bad way, he claims: he thought he would hit him harder.

“He didn’t hit me as strong as I thought he would... I guess it was like Samson with his hair, Roy Nelson lost a little of his strength when he lost weight (laughs)”, jokes, saying that did not hurt that punch which knocked him down on the second round. “I really lost balance, he didn’t got me dizzy or anything. It was like when I fought Fedor”.

And, as for the jokes appoint pointing before punching to distract him? “I’ve always done it in Jiu-Jitsu, it’s just a joke… He didn’t even looked at it, but I punched him hard twice (laughs)”, jokes.

Werdum vs. Mir at UFC Sao Paulo?

Now Fabricio will be on the shootings of the reality show The Ultimate Figher in Sao Paulo, and he wants his next fight to be there.

“I hope i can fight in June in Brazil. I get there on Monday (6th) to be part of TUF (Wanderlei Silva Team), but I won’t stop training, even because the whole team will be together there. God bless me, UFC will give me the chance to bring this joy to people in Brazil”, said.

His opponent could be Frank Mir, another top fighter of the division, but the Brazilian claimed he will not pick out names. Dana White can feel free to make his choice. “Anybody, I’m prepared to fight anybody. I’ve never picked out opponents my entire life. If it’s Frank Mir, excellent. If it’s not, it’s ok. I just wanna show I’m in the top 10 of the division”.

Rematch for the title in the future?

Werdum left UFC after being knocked out by a, so far, unknown and debutant: Junior dos Santos, the present UFC heavyweight champion, but he hopes to have another chance against him. In his opinion, this encounter could happen in 2013.

“It’s obvious. I have to fight Cigano again. When he got here, people didn’t know him in the UFC and I took that fight. When UFC offers me this fight, in three, four fights from now, I hope he accepts it. And the belt would remain in Brazil, which is pretty good, but with me it’ll be even better (laughs)”, said.

On their first bout, Dos Santos knocked Wedum out in a little longer than a minute, but Fabrício says he was not half the fighter he today is, once he didn’t have a strong team backing him up. “I want to fight him at my best. I’m not taking his credits, but when we fought I was an orphan with no mom or dad (no coaches), I wasn’t in a good shape and my mind was shit, but it’s over now. Let’s move on”.