Fabricio Werdum to Host ‘Papo Cruzado’ MMA Talk Show on Combate

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight titleholder Fabricio Werdum is ready to move to the next stage of his career.

In September 2023, Werdum returned from a lengthy layoff to test himself in bare-knuckle MMA. He faced former opponent Junior dos Santos at Gamebred FC 5, and he suffered a split decision loss to “Cigano.” Following the match, Canal Combate produced a documentary about the ex-champ titled “Werdum, Acima da Dor,” chronicling the late stage of his career. This arrangement led to a partnership with the heavyweight, and he has joined influencer Kefera Buchmann to host an MMA-themed talk show on the network called “Papo Cruzado.” Werdum spoke to Sherdog about his new show that will debut at the second half of 2024.

“These are topics that go beyond the usual routine of talking about when the next fight is, who you want to fight against, how your training is going,” Werdum explained. “I thought it was cool that we covered topics like ‘a woman’s place is on the mat,’ ‘celebrities vs. fighters,’ ‘brutes love too,’ ‘harassment,’ [and the] ‘importance of jiu-jitsu in spreading Brazil’s image around the world’…different themes, but still within this fighting universe.”

“Vai Cavalo” revealed that this first season will have 20 episodes, and guests include a number of prominent MMA fighters as well as coaches and some celebrities not involved in combat sports.

“Charles Oliveira, Wanderlei Silva, ‘Minotauro’ [Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira], Demian Maia, Juliana Velasquez, Amanda Ribas, Wallid Ismail, Pedro Rizzo, Murilo Bustamante, ‘Dede’ [Andre Pederneiras], and some celebrities from outside the fighting world such as MC Guime, Sergio Malandro and Marcos Mion,” the heavyweight listed. “It was a very pleasurable marathon, two weeks recording all day away from my family here in Sao Paulo, but the result was really cool and will definitely reach audiences outside our niche as well.”

Werdum, who now lives in Florianopolis, Brazil, travels to Sao Paulo almost every week to record his other show of “Dos Nosso Podcast.” The two cities are well over 400 miles apart, or roughly an hour by plane. This amount of traveling takes away from his time to train. Despite being happy with the new phase in his career, the former UFC and ADCC champion does not rule out a return to the ring or cage, if there is a good proposal. He noted that he had previously negotiated with Karate Combat for an appearance, but that failed to come together.

“Fighting is no longer my priority,” the 46-year-old concluded, “but if an interesting proposal arises with an opponent I have some history like it was with ‘Cigano,’ without a doubt we can return.”