Another day, another Brazilian pissed off by Conor McGregor.
First came Diego Brandao, Jose Aldo soon followed and Rafael dos Anjos came next.
McGregor beat the first two convincingly and, according to the bookies, has a decent chance of doing the same to dos Anjos when they meet for the lightweight title at UFC 197.
One Brazilian against whom we don’t fancy McGregor’s chances, and who is not happy with ‘The Notorious,’ is UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum.
Werdum, a Kings MMA teammate of dos Anjos, was left with a sour taste in his mouth following McGregor’s exploits at Wednesday night’s UFC 197 press conference.
“When have a fight with my friend, you have a fight with me, too,” Werdum told MMAFighting’s Dave Doyle. “We’re a family. If you say something bad, you pay for this for sure.”
Werdum, who aims to defend his heavyweight title in a rematch with Cain Velasquez at UFC 196, also claimed that he would have slapped McGregor if he had disrespected him on stage.
“When (reporters) had a question for Rafael and he talked over him, this is no good,” Werdum added. “If it was my opponent, I would do this (makes slapping motion), I’d say ‘be quiet.’ But that’s not Rafael’s personality. He’s a smart guy, okay, he controls himself, he just thinks about the fight.”
The 38 year old Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt is a legend of MMA and has beaten some of the greatest heavyweights in the sport’s history but he is very much of the mentality that respect must be shown between fighters.
“It’s very important to respect,” Werdum said. “You have your space, I have my space. We have a fight, why do you touch me before. I thought Conor McGregor wasn’t showing respect. It’s not good. If he does it to me, he has a big problem. It think it’s very important he respects my space and I respect his space.”
