Cain Velasquez knew he was in for a battle when he first laid eyes on Brock Lesnar.
The heavyweight greats squared off at UFC 121 in October 2010 and although Velasquez went on to win the competition through a dominant first-round knockout, his first impression of Lesnar was considered one of pure awe.
“Clearly, his dimension,” Velasquez mentioned in an interview with Tim Kennedy. “His dimension, his energy, and understanding how good of a wrestler he’s. Once more, OK, harmful, may be harmful, particularly with a sure type, for certain. However his large dimension is like, ‘Wow, it’s a giant human.’”
Lesnar’s dimension, athleticism, and wrestling skill have been sufficient to earn him the UFC heavyweight title in simply his fourth professional MMA bout. Nevertheless, the longtime professional wrestling star was unable to overpower Velasquez and finally succumbed to a flurry of punches, dropping his belt to Velasquez.
A two-time NCAA All-American in wrestling, Velasquez proved to be greater than a match for Lesnar, and he credit his staff—which included future UFC Corridor of Famer Daniel Cormier—for getting ready him for the worst doable eventualities.
“I in all probability weighed in at, like, 240-something entering into,” Velasquez mentioned. “My robust fits with him, I used to be excellent at getting off on the underside. We did this in school wrestling quite a bit. I used to be simply excellent at getting up from the underside, so I knew if I have been to get caught there, then it could possibly be a protracted night time for me, however we labored on that over and over with DC. We had one other nationwide champion heavyweight wrestler are available.
“We began within the worst positions, no matter [coach] Bob [Cook] mentioned, in the course of sparring, I needed to lay down on my again with 16-ounce gloves and had DC lay on prime of me and that’s the place we began from a number of instances a spherical. So I used to be excellent at getting up from the underside, particularly for that camp, and I knew I simply needed to hold it on the toes with strikes. Simply the stress of every part, but it surely didn’t matter for me. My mentality was I didn’t care if I misplaced or received, I’m simply going to present you what I’ve. That’s it. That’s all I may do.”
Velasquez managed a pair of title defenses throughout his run as heavyweight champion, however his profession was lower brief by a litany of accidents. He retired from MMA competitors in 2019 and later dabbled in professional wrestling with a number of corporations, together with WWE. At the moment, Velasquez awaits sentencing after pleading no-contest to a number of prices stemming from an incident through which he fired right into a car containing Harry Goularte, who’s accused of molesting Velasquez’s son at a daycare owned by Goularte’s mom.
As for the way Velasquez thinks he would fare towards the present prime heavyweights like Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall, he stored his prediction to himself, however agreed the matchups could be compelling.
“I believe they’d be shut fights or thrilling fights,” Velasquez mentioned.
