Werdum reportedly stripped of commentator duties following Reebok protest
Former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum recently protested the mandatory wearing of Reebok apparel in the Octagon and during fight…
Former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum recently protested the mandatory wearing of Reebok apparel in the Octagon and during fight week, with a photoshop of a Nike logo over his Reebok apparel as he does a walkout. The caption was hashtagged #chupa #mishuevos #reebok.
That translates as #suck #myballs #Reebok.
In a later explanatory message on Facebook, the fighter indicated he expected no repercussions.
“For people saying I’d get in trouble, there will be no trouble,” he wrote confidently. “It was just a protest, something that before we could show any sponsor we wanted.”
Now the fighter has posted a Portuguese language video on Instagram, and apparently, there is trouble.
“I just want to make everything clear about my post of Nike and Reebok,” Werdum wrote on the video caption. “I did this to protest about the sponsorship, before Rebook got into UFC, all the fighters use to do a lot of money with other sponsors, including me, and now they paying me only $5,000 per fight. I didn’t get penalized because I have to contract with them, but they cut me out of the tv broadcast #UFCnetwork.”
Werdum, who speaks fluent English and Spanish, as well as his native Brazilian Portuguese, has for years served as a fight analyst and color commentator for Spanish language UFC broadcasts. That apparently is over, at least for the time being.
“I won’t go [back] after this,” said Werdum, as translated by Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting. “It’s the second time it has happened. I didn’t go to [film in] Colombia once before because my wife had dengue [fever] and then I was on vacation, but they didn’t understand me and took me off of [the broadcast]. I asked Dana White and he put me back on. And now because of this post.
“I don’t have anything with Reebok, only during the fight. They can do anything. Did a post? Lose your job as commentator. If I had lost it because I was doing a poor job and nobody likes me, fine, but I know it’s not the case. I know I was doing a good job because I get messages from all Latin America saying that, and I have already received messages from people saying they will cancel the channel now.”
There has been no statement on the matter from the UFC, but the actions, if true, speak volumes.