Former UFC champion Fabricio Werdum is being hailed as a hero after he reportedly assisted in saving a drowning teen at a beach near his home in Torrance, California. With only one lifeguard on duty to go towards the rescue, Werdum lept into action, according to Brazilian website AgFight.com.
Werdum says he was alerted to the situation when he saw the local fire department arrive on the scene.
“When we saw the fireman’s car, the car stopped in front of us. I said I was going to help, and Karine (his wife) wasn’t sure, because it was dangerous,” Werdum told the outlet, as transcribed by MMA Junkie. “But when I looked, there were two tiny heads at sea yelling ‘help.’ They were very far, about 70 meters away. When the lifeguard grabbed the board by himself, I took off my coat and ran. I took the orange floater, threw it across my chest, and I arrived with him, a little further ahead even. I told him to get the girl, who was screaming a lot, and I got the boy, who was already limp. I was able to get him, and we swam toward the beach. …
“Then, at shore, an old man helped me. The waves were big. The girl sank about three times.”
Once Werdum was assisting the teen back to the beach, his wife captured the moment on camera with the caption, “My husband saved a teenager’s life” written in Portuguese.
Kudos to Werdum for leaping into action when he was needed.
The 41-year-old former champion is currently serving a two-year suspension by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency after testing positive for the steroid trenbolone and the metabolite epitrenbolone in an out-of-competition drug test. His failed drug test occurred on April 25, 2018.
Werdum has since requested his release from his UFC contract.