Dana White On Stripping UFC Champion, Fabricio Werdum - Mark Hunt Highlights, Bellator Addition
- This past weekend, Fabricio Werdum knocked out Mark Hunt to become the interim UFC heavyweight champion at UFC 180. Check out highlights of that fight in the video above.
Werdum earned a second round finish after delivering a flying knee that dropped Hunt. He is now expected to meet Cain Velasquez in 2015 to unify the belts.
- UFC president Dana White clarified comments he made recently concerning heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez. Velasquez has been forced to the sidelines once again after suffering a knee injury, and has not defended his title since late in 2013.
White, who crowned an interim champion in Fabricio Werdum this past weekend, cleared up a previous report that stated Velasquez could be stripped of his title if he didn't defend it early in 2015 while appearing on the FOX Sports post-fight show.
"That's not what I said," White said. "I said if we ended up in a situation where he got severely injured again where he can't fight for several more months, then we'd strip him."
- Bellator MMA landed who many consider the greatest prospect in MMA recently, announcing the signing of Aaron Pico over the weekend. Pico is currently training for the 2016 Summer Olympics in wrestling, a sport he has dominated for years. Also, he is a former Golden Gloves boxer.
"When it comes to any big decision I make, I sit down with my family, my management team at Zinkin and the people that are around me that I trust," Pico said. "We wanted an opportunity to achieve my dreams in the 2016 Olympics and transition into MMA, and when we sat down with Bellator, Viacom and Scott Coker, everything just sort of fell into place and I couldn't be happier to be here and be a part of the Bellator family."
Pico works with American Kickboxing Academy and head coach Bob Cook, which is also the home to UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, top contender Daniel Cormier and countless others.
"Simply put, Aaron has all the makings of MMA's next great superstar, and to have him here at Bellator is something special," Bellator president Scott Coker said. "Like many of us in the MMA community, Aaron is someone we've been watching closely over the last few years, and after sitting down with Bob Cook and his team, getting a chance to meet Aaron, and hearing his long-term aspirations, the fit became very obvious. I'm not only excited to see what Aaron is going to be able to do in our cage, but also watching him represent our country in 2016 at the Olympics."