Werdum: Why I front kicked Edmond Tarverdyan
Former UFC heavyweight champion: Why I front kicked my opponent’s coach
“It was a weird night,” said UFC president Dana White after UFC 203. “Stipe saved the night.”
In addition to losing a fighter to an elevator crash, and CM Punk losing like a one-stripe white belt vs. a brown belt, the co-main event ended with former heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum Sparta kicking opponent Travis Browne’s coach, Edmond Tarverdyan (2:38 mark in video below).
It was one of several times that the referee, coming off a star turn as Gimli in Lord of the Rings, lost control of the Octagon.
However, if you asked the hardcore fanbase to compile a top-10 list of people they wish would get Sparta kicked by Fabricio Werdum, Tarverdyan would undoubtedly make it.
And Werdum began the fight with a flying side kick to the face of Browne, in a technique not seen since the closing scene of Fist of Fury/The Chinese Connection.
The similarity is inescapable.
In all, it was a weird fight, on a weird night.
At the UFC 203 post-fight press conference, Werdum explained what happened.
“Mom says ‘Never say bad things to nobody,” said Werdum, as transcribed by Dave Doyle for MMA Fighting.
“He started it.”
“He said shut up your mouth motherf***er.”
“I just keep my distance, I don’t want to kick him, I just keep the distance, you know, he’s a boxing coach, and I see in his eyes he wants to punch my face. And I just want to keep the distance. But he comes first. He says a lot of things, a lot of bad things.”
In an appearance on FOX Sports 1, White pointed out that while it is very rare, these things do happen occasionally.
“Listen, this is the fight business,” said White said. “99.9 percent of the time when the fight is over, everyone is cool and shows respect. There are incidents sometimes. It happens. Nothing serious happened tonight. I’m sure the athletic commission will have something to say about it and I’m sure some fines will be handed out.”
As it turned out, the incident was indeed minor, and neither Werdum nor Tarverdyan will face formal punishment by the Ohio Athletic Commission.
UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic was warming up backstage at the time, but apparently caught it on the feed in his locker room, and knows what it feels like to to be kicked by the Brazilian.
“I’ve felt Werdum’s push kick before,” said Miocic. “It’s a good push kick. I felt bad for that coach.”
Tarverdyan replied in a taped interview HERE.