Daniel Cormier, the UFC light heavyweight champion, is campaigning in that division to avoid a confrontation with close friend, and heavyweight champion, Cain Velasquez. Cormier knows Velasquez well-he will be in his corner for UFC 188-and believes Fabricio Werdum has made a grave mistake in taunting Velasquez's Mexican heritage.
UFC 188 will take place in Mexico City, and recently Werdum joked that he was more Mexican than Velasquez is. Cormier believes Wedrum didn't mean it to be offensive, but that's had no bearing on how Velasquez received the comment.
Werdum had commented that Velasquez is an "American that thinks he's Mexican." At a breakfast Werdum went to say hello to Velasquez, but was rebuffed. Velasquez told him it was because he had bad mouthed him.
"I'm sure that Cain Velasquez wanted to say hi, but someone told him something. I think it was [UFC middleweight contender] Luke Rockhold. Do you know who Luke Rockhold is? That nobody. It could be on the first episode of Embedded I said [Velasquez] wasn't Mexican," Werdum said.
"Fabricio insulted his pride," Cormier said. "And I bet it was tongue in cheek by Werdum, I bet it wasn't meant that way, but you don't say it to that guy."
"The last guy who said things about Cain was Junior [dos Santos], he said he hits soft. And he got beat up twice. So I think Fabricio would have been better off keeping quiet."
The last time Velasquez fought was against dos Santos in October 2013. That means he will be facing the interim champion on a 19-month layoff, so the extra motivation may prove to be necessary when the opening bell sounds.
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