Fabricio Werdum to fight the winner of Sylvia/Nogueira for the heavyweight title
January 20, 2008 by Adam Morgan
That’s the word according to MMA Junkie:
With his come-from-behind victory over Gabriel Gonzaga at Saturday’s UFC 80 event, Fabricio Werdum — who owns a mere 1-1 record in the UFC — has been granted a heavyweight title shot. He’ll take on the winner of an interim title fight between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Tim Sylvia that headlines next month’s UFC 81 event.
UFC’s Dana White confirmed Werdum’s upcoming shot at the belt during UFC 80, according to our partners at Yahoo! Sports.
Really? Already? It’s likely that the UFC is giving Fabricio Werdum a title shot because there’s no one else to really give a title shot to. One would think that the logical choice would be the winner of the Herring/Kongo fight at UFC 82, but that fight isn’t until March. The heavyweight title will be decided in February and Werdum will be available to fight before either Herring or Kongo. It’s hard to believe that the winner of that fight wouldn’t be the number one contender and would likely get a shot at the winner of Sylvia/Nogueira vs. Werdum.
Herring - Nog IV? wheeeeeeeeeee
Honestlhy though even if Herring would beat Kongo, probably by taking him down which would ultimately make him a hypocrite (see post fight comments after Jake O’Brien fight) would he really be deserving of a title shot? Not that Werdum is but atleast he just beat the former #1 contender…
“just beat the former #1 contender…”
True.
Also I am sure they would have loved to give this to Vera but he showed up far too short last fight to say the least. No matter what I am sure the UFC thought Cro Cop would be in the mix through 2009 at the very least.
The UFC’s heavyweight division is so depressing. It really could have been amazing with Randy and Fedor but now it just feels so shallow.
Kongo looked very good in his win against Cro Cop. I wouldn’t be against him in his fight with Herring, whose only recent win was against a Imes.
Holee sheet, if Werdum gets a title shot, they should just abandon the heavyweight division. Man, Werdum didn’t even have a decent record in pride.
If Arlovski beats OBrien pay him whatever the hell he wants. Give him Fedor money, just KEEP HIM.
My God, wasn’t it in April when the heavyweight division was said to be one of the deepest?
DEFINATELY EARLY.
but i would love to see him rise. . .
after one of brandon vera’s early ufc fights, vera claimed that he was going to be the next randy couture in that he would win the heavyweight title and then drop and win the lightheavy.. i would love to see that happen.. and i know that vera has loads of talent and could make it happen..
really… i agree that they should give him a shot b4 werdum..i really can’t think of any other heavyweights right now..
give cro cop two wins and he could be ready for a shot..
obviously, to me, his last two losses were mistakes.. when u look at his career.. that becomes evident.