Junior Dos Santos explains importance of ending rivalry, becoming friends with Fabricio Werdum

Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos is glad to be able to move past differences with a fellow former Brazilian champ.

In 2008, Dos Santos made his UFC debut against Fabricio Werdum. Dos Santos finished Werdum in just 81 seconds, marking an exit from the promotion, and thus sparking a bitter rivalry. Werdum would return to the UFC four years later, but didn’t cross paths with Dos Santos.

Their second meeting would come 15 years after the first at Gamebred Bareknuckle 5. Dos Santos once again claimed victory, but the fight went o the scorecards as they were both trying to figure out how to best operate without gloves. More importantly for Dos Santos, that allowed him to clear some things up during the fight.

“We always were feeling this rivalry between us,” Dos Santos told MMA Junkie Radio. “… That’s why the fight was important to go by the points because we had a little bit of more time in the cage, so we were able to talk to each other finally. I was able to talk with coach Rafael (Cordeiro) and explain that it doesn’t make any sense for us to keep this rivalry going. We’ll never fight again, you know?”

Things have come full circle for Dos Santos, who admits he admired Werdum as a young fighter on the rise. He understands why the rivalry existed while at the height of their careers, but now Dos Santos says he and Werdum are friends. The next time Dos Santos goes to Brazil, he’s planning on being a guest on Werdum’s podcast.

“The truth is, before our fight, I was a fan of Fabricio Werdum – of him and Big Nog,” Dos Santos said.”… I used to admire Fabricio Werdum a lot as well, because he was the Brazilian representative in the world for the heavyweights. And then after the fight, everything that we said, everything the way things happened made this rivalry between us, and we never talked to each other again. I was never able to say something about that because we were feeling that rivalry.

“But now, after 15 years, we were able to fight each other again and finally I was there. I said, ‘Man, if I have nothing, I’m thankful. I fought you back in the day. I admire your career, actually. Fifteen years later we are here fighting again. I remember my debut when I fought you, I was fighting Fabricio Werdum, the guy who was a big name at that time. The guy who was supposed to fight for the title already, and I was doing my debut in the UFC.’ Everybody was talking about that. So the world was able to notice me because I was fighting Fabricio Werdum, so I’m thankful for that.”

Dos Santos is preparing to compete in bareknuckle MMA again in March, this time against another UFC vet Alan Belcher. “Cigano” has found happiness competing in bareknuckle, as he said his first experience was the first time in his entire career he could actually be in the moment.

“I think we are even getting better as human beings, as men that we are because we are able to focus our energy on the real competition, not on this ‘Blah, blah, blah,’ and things like that, ” Dos Santos said. “We go there, we sell a fight, of course. But then we go there and we put on a good show, and that’s it. Everything stays there. So, I feel good about it.”