Fabricio Werdum has a bone to pick with his employers.
The 39-year-old former heavyweight champion told Combate his time with the UFC could be up when his next contract negotiation rolls around. Werdum recently expressed his displeasure with the UFC's exclusive apparel deal with Reebok, which prompted the promotion to remove the popular Brazilian fighter from his international broadcasting duties.
That disagreement is apparently indicative of a greater disconnect between Werdum and the UFC.
"Once my contract is up, I don't know if I'll renew it," Werdum said, according to a translation from Portuguese by Bloody Elbow's Lucas Rezende. "Many things can happen but I'll say this. I'm 100 percent a company man, be it a sponsor or an organization, I'm the kind of guy people can always count on.
"However, when it's not reciprocal, there's no way I can be the company man. When I'm happy, I do everything for things to turn out the best way they can, but when I'm unhappy, and I'm not happy at all with the UFC, at the moment, it's hard to be like that."
Last June, "Vai Cavalo" was on top of the world after defeating Cain Velasquez to become a UFC champion. In his first defense, he was brutally KO'd by Stipe Miocic in his home country of Brazil, and his request for an immediate rematch was denied.
Werdum now finds himself having to fight Velasquez again at UFC 207 on Dec. 30. Win or lose, Werdum is planning to explore his options if his prospects with the UFC and MMA in general don't improve soon.
"I'm kind of bummed out. After all this time fighting, I consider myself a veteran - I'm 39 after all," Werdum said. "I started out a little late, in my 20s, but I still feel like a veteran. I intend to fight for two or three more years, we always say that, but we can never really stop. I can't confirm anything about the contract. I just want to do the right thing. Maybe I'll get a better proposal from another company once my contract is up, I don't know, I haven't gotten any for now.
"Who knows, maybe in the future, if I start being happy again in the organization I work for, maybe I'll stay or maybe I'll leave, or maybe I'll just stop. So there's a lot that could happen."
