MMA Weekly Fighter Playlist: Fabricio Werdum picks the song that always boosts his adrenaline
Music is everywhere; it can elevate the dullest of film scenes, lift your spirits while drinking in a bar, or even inspire someone like Fabricio Werdum to give everything in the gym.
Highlights in the playlist so far have seen Dustin Poirier receive a ‘Kiss From A Rose’, Jorge Masvidal ask for ‘Payback’ via James Brown, and Sean O’Malley, playing a song about, well, Sean O’Malley.
Now in the third edition of the series, Sportskeeda recently sat down with former UFC star Fabricio Werdum as he prepares for his PFL debut against Renan Ferreira on May 6th. Often known as 'Vai Cavalo', Werdum revealed his favorite workout song. Let’s examine this trance classic to kick things off this week.
Spotify Playlist [Werdum, Jones and Till]
Fabricio Werdum - Sandstorm [Darude]
“I like the Wanderlei Silva song, the one he comes out to in Japan. Do you remember that? This is amazing for training and motivation, because I remember all the history of Wanderlei Silva. When I put on this song, it makes me motivated. Look up the Japan entrance, look up Pride. It's amazing, man," Fabricio Werdum on his favorite workout song.
In 2013 Wanderlei Silva defeated Brian Stann via knockout at UFC on Fuel TV in Japan, which was to be his last professional MMA win. This was also his last entrance into the octagon - and you can see why his song of choice gets fans and Fabricio Werdum pumped.
Originally released in Finland before the turn of the millennium, ‘Sandstorm’ was re-released in 2000 by Finnish DJ Darude. The title of this instrumental originates from the Roland JP-8080 synthesizer used in the song, which displays the text “sand storm” on startup.
Not many songs have the power to define an era, but ‘Sandstorm’ is the perfect mix of hardware and software that could only be a trance track from the turn of the century. The video is quintessentially 2000, with its fast-forward cut-frame editing and Matrix-esque slow motion. The mystery of the briefcase remains unsolved - but I’m going to guess it contained sand.
Jon Jones - So Fresh, So Clean [Outkast]
“Ain’t nobody dope as me, I’m just so fresh, so clean” [So Fresh, So Clean]
Having never lost inside the octagon, it is fair to say that nobody is as dope as Jon Jones, with an MMA record so fresh and so clean (clean). He may even be the coolest motherfunker on the planet. The former UFC light heavyweight champion looked sharp on his Instagram stories this week, briefly keeping a 20mph pace on a treadmill.
Released as a single in 2001, ‘So Fresh, So Clean’ is taken from American hip-hop duo Outkast’s fourth studio album, Stankonia [2000]. The song features samples from both Joe Simon and Funkadelic, yet retains all of Outkast’s best characteristics: groovy beats, funktastic music and playful lyrics. It's a sensational tune that oozes ‘cool’ and hasn’t aged a single day in 20 years, or in the words of Big Boi himself - “cooler than Freddie Jackson sipping a milkshake in a snowstorm.”
Darren Till - It Must’ve Been Love [Roxette]
“It was all that I wanted, now, I’m living without” [It Must've Been Love]
For a while, fighting Marvin Vettori on April 10th was all Darren Till wanted - but unfortunately he broke his collarbone 10 days beforehand - and now he is living without. The Liverpudlian has been working hard to get back to fitness and compete again in the UFC middleweight division.
Swedish pop-duo Roxette had originally released ‘It Must Have Been Love’ as a Christmas song in 1987, yet most of us know the edited version, re-released in 1990 on the Pretty Woman film soundtrack. Although cheesy to its very core, this 80’s power ballad is surprisingly catchy and remains extremely popular, with over 400 million YouTube views.
Israel Adesanya will face Marvin Vettori again at UFC 263, perhaps Dana White will lay a whisper on Darren Till’s pillow… “Whittaker….rematch.”