Humorous Fabricio Werdum Lightens UFC 198 Mood, Eyes Stipe Miocic Title Defense

Fabricio Werdum stole the show with his humor.

Werdum will defend his Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic in the UFC 198 main event on May 14 in Curitiba, Brazil. At the pre-fight press conference, “Vai Cavalo” broke the ice by snatching the microphone and making sure everyone knew who was on the marquee.

“You see Vitor Belfort, Anderson Silva, [Mauricio] ‘Shogun’ [Rua] and all these legends here, but as you can see, on the poster my picture is the biggest,” Werdum said. “That means the event is mine, so I want to welcome everybody to the press conference. Feel free to ask any questions you want, but there is only one request: Anderson will answer a maximum of five questions. Let’s start.”

After the press conference, Werdum spoke to Sherdog about his sparring session with Wanderlei Silva, the former Pride Fighting Championships titleholder who recently agreed to terms with the Bellator MMA organization. Tongue was planted softly in cheek.

“Wanderlei arrived at the academy with vale tudo gloves on and, with his wild west style, said Curitiba was his city and that no heavyweight would rule it,” Werdum said. “Master Rafael [Cordeiro] put him right in the middle, and the entire academy stopped to see. We had a real fight. What a sparring session.”

Werdum then turned his attention to Miocic.

“We are working on strategy,” he said. “We still have 45 days until the fight, and we plan to fight smart and keep the belt. We have five rounds, and Stipe, just like [Cain] Velasquez, steps forward all the time. He normally uses all his power in the first rounds and gets tired in the third. Of course, I’ll kick his legs, and I think he’ll try to take me down just like Velasquez did. Our goal is to get the knockout or submission as soon as possible and not fight five rounds. We’ll be ready for anything. The most important thing is to get the win and keep the belt.”