Junior dos Santos withdraws from grappling rematch with Fabricio Werdum on August 8

Junior dos Santos has withdrawn from his grappling match against Fabricio Werdum, set for August 8 at Kings Championship in Florianopolis, Brazil, “Cigano” announced on Monday. The promotion has yet to confirm whether Werdum will receive a replacement opponent or be removed from the card entirely.

Dos Santos said he remains open to a grappling contest with Werdum at a later date, leaving the door open for the matchup to be rescheduled.

The two former UFC heavyweight champions have history stretching back to 2009, when dos Santos produced one of the division’s most memorable upsets — a stunning 81-second knockout of Werdum at UFC 90. They met again 14 years later in bare-knuckle MMA, with dos Santos again claiming the victory by decision.

Dos Santos has been active in recent years outside the UFC. After back-to-back wins at Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA — including a decision over Werdum and a knockout of Alan Belcher to claim the heavyweight title in 2024 — he returned to conventional MMA in May on the MVP show on Netflix, where he was stopped by knockout by Robelis Despaigne.

For Werdum, the planned grappling bout had marked his first appearance in combat sports since retiring from MMA in 2024, shortly after a controversial loss to Renan Ferreira in his only fight under the PFL banner. With dos Santos now out, it remains unclear whether the 47-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist will compete at the Kings Championship event at all.