Legendary coach Rafael Cordeiro has this week recalled an unexpected late-night grappling session that broke out between Jon Jones and Fabricio Werdum in a hotel room in Brazil many years ago.
Cordeiro told Sherdog that Jones had joined Werdum, Wanderlei Silva and himself for dinner in the Brazilian city of Goiania while attending an event there, and afterwards when they went to Cordeiro’s hotel room.
“As soon as we got in my room, Jon Jones looks at Fabricio (and says), ‘Let’s roll motherf–ker,’” Cordeiro told Sherdog’s Marcelo Alonso.
“I was like, ‘This is not gonna be good.’ This is impossible to happen. I was scared. (It was) 1 a.m. I said man, ‘What is gonna happen?’”
In the grappling exchanges that followed Jones almost mounted Werdum and later looked went for a takedown, while an alarmed Cordeiro stepped in to halt the action when Werdum started hunting for a kimura submission.
“Almost broke the TV, almost broke the wall!” Cordeiro recalls. “Right on the floor with no protection. Crazy guys.”
No harm was done though in the end and it seems from that point on the Brazilian contingent hold him in high regard.
“Jon Jones is one of us,” Cordeiro said. “I love him and (he’s a) really good guy — always treats me with respect. He deserves all the best, and I believe he’s gonna finish as a champ.”
