Weigh-in stunt aside, Fabricio Werdum is taking Alexander Volkov fight seriously

Fabricio Werdum must be serious about this whole pro wrestling thing. The former UFC heavyweight champion grabbed a chair at the weigh-in in London Friday and pretended he was going to smash his opponent, Alexander Volkov, over the head with it.

The Iron Sheik would have loved it.

Werdum was famously in UFC president Dana White’s doghouse, particularly after an incident in Australia when Werdum threw a boomerang at welterweight Colby Covington. But after the two met in Las Vegas, everything between them seems better, and Werdum can even joke about the boomerang incident.

“Maybe I can take the boomerang and go like this,” Werdum said, acting as if he hit an opponent with it.

He’ll fight Volkov on Saturday in London in the main event of a card streamed live on UFC Fight Pass. A win will likely leave him next in line for the winner of the upcoming title bout between champion Stipe Miocic and light heav yweight champion Daniel Cormier, which will be at UFC 226 in Las Vegas in July.

A healthy and motivated Werdum is important for the heavyweight division, which has some top-flight talent but is seriously lacking in depth.

Werdum is one of those fighters who has the ability to beat anyone in the game, given his extraordinary jiu-jitsu as well as his vastly improved striking skills.

He trained with Volkov at Kings MMA several years ago and has a healthy respect for the former Bellator heavyweight champion, who will have a decided height and reach advantage on Werdum.

Werdum said they helped each other, but pointed out a significant difference.

“It’s a big difference between when you are training and when it’s a fight,” Werdum said. “It’s so different. But I know him and I don’t like it when I hear people saying, ‘Werdum, this is an easy fight for you.’ No, that’s not true. In the heavyweight division in the UFC, it’s tough. Just one punch, one kick and you could be finished.”

Werdum’s biggest wins came over two of the three men regarded as the best heavyweights in MMA history, ex-Pride champion Fedor Emelianenko and then-UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez.

When he beat Velasquez for the title in Mexico City in 2016, he showed a fully developed game. But his striking wasn’t nearly as good in 2010, when he submitted Emelianenko, as it would become.

He still had the reputation as only a ground fighter when he fought Travis Brown in 2014. It was billed as a battle of Werdum’s grappling versus Browne’s superior striking.

Werdum, though, in arguably his most complete performance to date, pummeled Browne, using his striking to pound out a unanimous decision. That opened plenty of eyes, but what happened next, in a bout for the interim heavyweight title, completely changed the perception of him.

“I’m a very different guy, a different fighter,” Werdum said. “I have evolved. Before, the guys used to call me just a jiu-jitsu guy, ‘Ah, he’s just a jiu-jitsu guy.’ Today? I don’t know. I gave a big surprise when I knocked out Mark Hunt. Nobody believed I could do that, but I showed it and now, I have a lot of knockouts in my career.”

Werdum, a Spanish-language analyst for UFC Latin America, picks Miocic to defeat Cormier in their bout. Assuming all goes well for Werdum, that would likely mean a rematch with Miocic, who took the title from him in 2016 during what he says was a turbulent time in his life.

He said he was too emotional for that bout, fighting in front of 45,000 fans in his native Brazil, including for the first time in his career, his mother. She flew from her home in Spain to Brazil for the fight, only to see her son get knocked out.

If he does wind up across from Miocic for the title a second time, things will be different, Werdum vows: His mother won’t be there.

“She has lived in Spain for 30 years and when I tell her, come again to see me fight, she says, ‘No. I don’t want you to lose again!’ ” Werdum said.

So, Mom won’t be there, but if Werdum takes care of business, he’ll be able to have an enjoyable post-fight conversation with her the next time around.

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