MMA Origins: Cain Velasquez

The derailing

As 2013 ended it seemed like Velasquez was back to where he’d been post-Lesnar, the unstoppable champion and perhaps the heir to the throne vacated back in 2010 by the great Fedor Emelianenko. Fedor had been recognised as the best Heavyweight in MMA history to that point but now – with two wins over JDS to go along with the rest of his accomplishments – Cain was beginning to catch up.

The only thing seemingly threatening him was his penchant for picking up injuries. Journalist Dave Meltzer – a big supporter of Cain since his early days and a San Jose native himself, familiar with the American Kickboxing Academy – had been quoted on numerous occasions as saying that the only thing stopping Cain from becoming the greatest Heavyweight of all time would be his injury proneness. In his early UFC career Cain had kept up a solid schedule of fights but after UFC 166, things would go completely haywire for him on that front.

It’s still a major question as to what caused – and indeed, is still causing – him so many injury problems. Theories abounded, from blaming AKA’s hard sparring tendencies to Cain’s own questionable methods in the weight room. Whatever the reason, after UFC 166 Velasquez was sidelined again, this time with a torn labrum.

To take advantage of the fact that he’d be on the shelf for some time, the UFC announced that he’d be coaching the inaugural season of TUF: Latin America, featuring fighters from Mexico against non-Brazilians from South America. The opposing coach would be the top contender, Fabricio Werdum, and the two would fight at UFC 180 in the UFC’s Mexico City debut. To give a bit of perspective on the length of Cain’s injury, the show was scheduled for November 2014 – over a year after he’d beaten Dos Santos.

As it turned out, he couldn’t make that date even. Three weeks before the show Velasquez was forced out with a torn meniscus and sprained MCL. Werdum fought and beat Mark Hunt for an interim title instead, and eventually, the Velasquez fight was scheduled for June 2015 – a massive twenty months since Cain had last set foot in the cage. And like the first booking, the fight would take place in Mexico City.

On paper, the Werdum pairing seemed to favour Velasquez; although the Brazilian presented some problems, namely the best ground game in the division, Velasquez had of course blown through Nogueira – a similar fighter – years prior, outboxing him and never allowing the fight to hit the mat. Werdum’s stand-up had definitely improved over the years but he still didn’t quite look like a natural kickboxer. For me, the fight was tailor-made for another Velasquez beatdown.

The elephant in the room turned out to be one of the biggest shockers in MMA history. Ever since his debut, Velasquez’s biggest strength had been his cardio, the fact that he could put on a pace that no other Heavyweight was able to match.

He came out like a house on fire against Werdum, tagging him over and over in the first round, but the Brazilian showed his veteran wiliness, slipping a lot of the heavier blows and using a plum clinch masterfully to avoid being punished in the clinch the way that JDS had been. Cain won the first round but everyone seemed shocked when he was the one breathing heavily in his corner.

It turned out that he’d made a fatal error in his training camp. While Werdum had come to Mexico City much earlier in order to acclimatise himself to the massive elevation – some 2250m above sea level – Cain had not, choosing to trust in his conditioning. And suddenly, it became clear that his biggest strength was totally failing him. The champion came into the second round with no steam on his punches at all and became a walking heavy bag for Werdum, who seemingly couldn’t believe his luck.

He punished Cain throughout the round like nobody had done before but couldn’t quite find the finishing blow. When Cain decided to switch things up in the third, though, sensing the fight slipping away, Werdum moved for the kill. A sloppy takedown attempt saw Cain leave his head out and the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master slapped on a tight guillotine. Seconds later Cain had to tap out.