A grappling and MMA seminar given at the Werdum Center has brought back to the Island one of the great legends of Mixed Martial Arts, the double UFC world champion and three-time jiu-jitsu world champion, Fabrício Werdumaccompanied by his inseparable brother, Felipe, to transmit to 30 privileged your experience.
Of all the contact sports you have practiced, which one do you prefer and why?
I’ll stick with jiu-jitsu. It’s a very complete sport. Nowadays we couldn’t practice MMA without mastering it. In self-defense it is the best discipline. They all have their point, karate, muay thai, I like judo a lot, but jiu-jitsu is a sport that can save your life.
Your love affair with jiu-jitsu was born in a curious way, after being subjected when you had no knowledge of the sport, by an ex-boyfriend of a girlfriend you had at the time when you were 20 years old. How did that episode that arose by chance change your entire life?
It changed everything. It all started there, when he challenged me and submitted me with a leg triangle, because I started practicing jiu-jitsu every day and it became something similar to a job for me. Before starting I was in the park with my friends playing soccer and taking drugs, but I chose jiu-jitsu and became a world champion. It was the first step before practicing grappling and reaching the UFC. Thanks to sport my life changed, now I know the whole world and I know many people, including presidents of several countries.
If there is one fight in his career with which he became world famous, it was with the submission, precisely with a triangle lock with his legs to the then undefeated and MMA legend, Fedor Emelianenko. What do you remember about that feat?
It was a historic fight in which I managed to beat a fighter who had never lost a fight before and I did it with the triangle key that my ex-girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend had used to subject me to. It was a machine. At the moment I grabbed him and submitted him in 69 seconds, people then began to wonder who the fighter was who had managed to submit Fedor Emelianenko, because until that moment he was not well known. I have fallen a few times, I came back and became UFC world champion twice.
Precisely his departure from the UFC after a defeat helped him realize that he was not training enough to reach the top. What did that experience teach you as a fighter?
At that time I thought I was invincible, but I really wasn’t training enough to be the best in the world. That defeat was very important for me. I don’t like losing, but the big difference between champions is that a defeat like that in which he knocked me out made me change my life and move to the United States to train with the best coach in the world, Rafael Cordeiro. There was a time when I was left there with no money, no job, and that was what taught me that I had to be more professional. I have always been very talented. but nowadays it is not enough, you have to have discipline.
What was the first advice that Rafael Cordeiro gave you?
That I had to train every day, be constant. He was the first to arrive at the gym and the last to leave. To beat Fedor I spent a year and a half training without having a contract, the fight came and I beat him.
Throughout this journey to the top, how important has your wife, Karine Groff, been?
It would have been very difficult to achieve everything I have achieved if she were not by my side. I started to earn good money in dollars and it was very easy to follow the path of girls, parties, drugs, it happened to many well-known fighters. My wife understood from the beginning what my job was and she never gave me any problems when it came to going up to five months without seeing her because she was preparing me, she never went to see one of my fights or a training session. It has been very important in my life and that is why we have been together for 18 years.
Another important figure in his career was Mirko Filipovic. Helping him improve his ground technique opened the doors for Pride to enter competing professionally in MMA. What was his relationship with him like? Do you keep in touch?
We have a very distant relationship now. We were training together in Croatia between 2004 and 2006 and he helped me a lot, but not with the training. I went to teach him jiu-jitsu. He never taught me anything, but from watching him train I learned a lot, especially his discipline, because he was a true professional. He never managed to kick me. In an interview, he says that I left his house because on one occasion he made me submit, but he lied and I got angry with him. I left because I didn’t want to be second to him, I wanted to do things my way and follow my path.
Despite what many people think, you were the first Spaniard to be UFC world champion and not Ilia Topuria
People talked a lot about this. I came to Spain when I was nine years old. My mother has lived here for 37 years. I have a great history of many years with Spain. I have always gone out to the octagon with the flag of Spain and Brazil. I have had Spanish nationality for many years and they have always treated me very well here. I was UFC champion twice as a Spaniard. I respect Topuria a lot, but you can’t forget history. He just came out, he is an excellent fighter, but with all due respect, he is the second Spaniard to be UFC champion.
He is in Gran Canaria to give a seminar on grappling and MMA at the Werdum Center with his brother Felipe. What will the fighters who have signed up for it find?
Back in the day, in 2015, we held the largest seminar on the Island in Gran Canaria with 300 people at the Gran Canaria Arena. This seminar allows us to teach you the techniques, the basics and transmit my experience to you. I show you what I did to get to the top
Are you surprised by the growth of the UFC?
Dana White is a businessman and he has done very well, people respect him a lot and although he didn’t believe me too much, he gave me the opportunity I needed and I surprised him twice.
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2024-05-15 13:40:36
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