Many wonder what it would be like to be behind the scenes at a major MMA fight. What happens in the locker room while the fighters are waiting? At the Werdum vs. Fedor Strikeforce match up on June 26, 2010, GRACIEMAG.com got the exclusive look at Fabricio “Vai Cavalo” Werdum’s pre-fight wait.
Calm in the dressing room before the decisive triangle that caught Fedor. Photo: Mike Colón.
In his locker room, Werdum had coaches and friends sitting with him keeping him calm before his big, world-altering fight with Fedor. Truth be told, Werdum needed no “calming.” With his manager, Richard Wilner, his muay thai coach, Rafael Cordeiro, his Jiu-Jitsu coach, Octavio “Ratinho” Couto, his brother, Felipe and his sister, Fabiana, in the locker room with him, Werdum was happily surrounded by his “family.”
As the big man lounged against the wall, next to his good friend, training partner, and fellow Strikeforce fighter, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, he joked, laughed, and talked to his friends, as if he were at his house hanging out on a Saturday night. At times they would watch the big screen TV in the room and comment on the fights taking place before his.
There was no stress, no pressure, no anxiety in the room what-so-ever. There was only a very calm, peaceful, relaxed presence, and a very confident man awaiting his destiny.
At one point in his approximate 4-hour wait, referee Big John McCarthy came into the room to talk to Werdum about the rules in the cage. Check out this video on the referee’s conversation about what Werdum was allowed, and not allowed to do once he entered the ring with Fedor.