Werdum: ‘Advanced’ Talks With Bellator ‘A Matter Of Fedor Accepting’

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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum is currently a free agent and looking to finishing up his mixed martial arts (MMA) career with Scott Coker, who promoted “Vai Cavalo” under the Strikeforce banner several years back.

But Coker alone probably wouldn’t be enough to get Werdum under contract. Fortunately for fans he doesn’t need to be, as former PRIDE Fighting Championship heavyweight titleholder Fedor Emelianenko is also part of the Bellator MMA roster and open to a Werdum rematch.

“(The talks) really are advanced,” Werdum told Canal Encarada (via MMA Fighting). “Ali (Abdelaziz) went there last week, had the talk, and now it’s a matter of Fedor accepting. And he said the other day in an interview that he wanted to do this rematch as well. Since I have a huge respect for Fedor, I’d definitely give him a rematch — not only for that, but also the financial side, the promotion, the whole history we had.”

Werdum (24-9-1), now 43, finished out his UFC contract by submitting Alexander Gustafsson earlier this year on “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi. As for Emelianenko (39-6, 1 NC), his last bout resulted in a technical knockout victory over Quinton Jackson at Bellator 237.

“With all due respect, I firmly believe I will submit him again,” Werdum said. “I have no doubt. It’s not me being cocky, it’s the reality. That’s what I imagine. It will be a tough, of course. People think the other fight was easy, but how about the one before? Fighting Fedor, the expectation, nobody believing in me, everybody against me and chanting ‘The Emperor’ in the arena. It was tough, of course, because of everything that surrounded it.”

Werdum vs. Fedor 2 … coming 2021?