Fabricio Werdum Didn’t Overlook Interim Titles On Path To UFC Stardom

After winning the interim UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 197 a couple of weeks ago, Jon Jones spoke of the belt as if it were a prize found at the bottom of a box of Cracker Jacks.

While it was shiny like the linear title he wore around his waist for a number of years, that belt was still in Daniel Cormier’s possession and the one presented to him after his win over Ovince Saint Preux that sat before him on the dais was little more than costume jewelry. It was pretty, but without any real value to him.

That sentiment is one shared by many fighters that have challenged for and captured interim gold, but not Fabricio Werdum. Where plenty of competitors are quick to dismiss the significance of winning an interim title, opting instead to focus exclusively on the linear title, the current undisputed UFC heavyweight champion put a lot of value in claiming his first UFC title because that victory is what led him to the biggest win of his underrated career.

“A lot of fighters don’t care about an interim belt, but I did — I cared about it when (I) fought Mark Hunt for it,” Werdum, who collected a second-round stoppage win over the “Super Samoan” at UFC 180 to capture the interim title, explained.

Seven months later and back inside Arena Ciudad de Mexico, he shared the cage with the man he was originally supposed to face on that warm November evening, Cain Velasquez, in a bout to unify the titles and determine the top dog in the big boy division.

“I fought Cain to unify the titles and did that, even though I was the underdog,” offered Werdum, reflecting on the third-round submission win over Velasquez that left him as the unquestioned top heavyweight in the sport. “It was emotional. No one believed in me, but I proved myself inside the octagon.

“The moment when I got the belt was one of the biggest moments in my career, in my life. It was meant to be.”