Former heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum wants out of the UFC.
Currently on a two-year suspension from USADA after testing positive for Trenbolone back in April, Werdum confirmed on Thursday that he has requested his release from the promotion so he can resume his career in another organization.
”My idea is to do the right thing, which would be rescind my contract with the UFC,” Werdum told PVT in Brazil (as translated by MMAFighting). “Ali [Abdelaziz] is a manager that defends us really well. He has a lot of famous fighters, many people, and to me he’s the best manager right now, the one with the best direct contact with the UFC.”
Werdum would be 43 by the time he was eligible to compete in the UFC again in 2020 but his first overtures to the company were met with a message that they would still like him back when his suspension is over.
Obviously, Werdum would prefer to fight sooner rather than later while competing for a promotion that doesn’t necessarily have to honor the suspension handed out by USADA.
”What I would really like right now is to be free, that the UFC would have consideration with me and release me,” Werdum said. “It’s a matter of Ali talking with (Dana White) now. Ali really has a good friendship with Dana White. It’s not only up to Dana. They always say that, and I go talk to someone else and they say it’s not only up to them as well, it’s that game.
“I obviously love fighting in the UFC, but after this [situation], this unfair doping, I would like to fight in other promotions.”
Werdum isn’t the first fighter to go head-to-head with the UFC’s anti-doping partner and ultimately request to be released from the promotion.
Former champion Josh Barnett did the same after he was locked in a battle with USADA for more than a year over a positive drug test. Barnett ended up being exonerated of any wrongdoing but the entire ordeal left a bad taste in his mouth and he requested his release, which was later granted by the UFC.
