Former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum is now eyeing a spot on the PFL roster after negotiations with Bellator MMA fizzled out.
Werdum, who parted ways with the UFC earlier this year, has recently been linked to a rematch with fellow heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko after the Bellator MMA banner.
This week, however, Werdum revealed that negotiations with Bellator have stalled.
“It didn’t happen that I closed with them because Bellator wanted to do the rematch with Fedor Emelianenko in my first fight with them,” Werdum told Combate (via MMA Mania). “I respect Fedor a lot, I can’t say that he didn’t want to fight, but there was no negotiation with Fedor, on his part he didn’t have to have this first fight. Bellator wanted this to be my first fight to have that impact already, and then close four or five more fights as a contract.”
With an Bellator rematch with Fedor Emelianenko seemingly not happening anytime soon, Werdum now has his sights set on the PFL, a fast-rising mixed martial arts promotion based in the United States that features a unique regular season, playoffs, and championship format and $1M prizes for tournament winners.
“I am also aware that (my manager) Ali Abdelaziz is talking to the PFL, and it may be that I will enter this championship,” Werdum said. “I don’t know if it is very well known in Brazil, but it is like a championship, you enter and make four fights, you win these four fights you are the champion and you win the prize of one million dollars, plus your purse, so that interested me a lot.”
