Fabricio Werdum masks banned at UFC 198

Fabricio Werdum's "happy face" masks will not be allowed into Arena da Baixada stadium at UFC 198 on Saturday.

Fans were told to discard the masks when trying to enter the stadium for Saturday's card headlined by Werdum and Stipe Miocic, according to Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting.com.

Werdum had distributed tens of thousands of masks throughout the week leading up to his bout, and was not happy about the decision to limit fans from wearing them.

"I was doing a great campaign for the ‘happy face’. I had 45,000 (masks) done and the ‘happy face’ was vetoed at the entrance for the weigh-ins," Werdum said on Combate TV on Friday. "I hope it’s not vetoed tomorrow.

"I think it’s absurd, actually. I spent a lot of money, got a nice campaign to excite the crowd, people were happy, posting it on social media, and UFC comes and vetoes it. I didn’t like it, but it’s fine."

The UFC made the call for security purposes, MMA Fighting reports.