MMA Origins: Cain Velasquez

Back to the future?

As 2016 came to its end, the UFC announced that rather than a title fight, Velasquez would instead finally get the Werdum fight that had been cancelled earlier in the year. Miocic had held onto his title in his first defence against Alistair Overeem, but he wanted some time off after a heavy schedule in 2016. So the Werdum rematch made sense, with the winner going on to fight for the belt in 2017. And that’s when things got weird.

Firstly, on a fateful November night, Velasquez – along with fellow UFC stars George St-Pierre, Donald Cerrone, TJ Dillashaw and Tim Kennedy, as well as former Bellator head honcho Bjorn Rebney – were announced as the founding members of the MMAAA, a fighter’s association looking to level the playing field with the UFC, at a big press conference.

Velasquez’s involvement seemed odd in a lot of ways. After all, the UFC – outside of 2008’s AKA incident – had always been supportive of him, giving him a massive push as a star and plenty of opportunities. It was only when Cain took the mic that things became a little clearer. He didn’t mention fighter pay or fighter treatment – his whole spiel was about his injury history, revealing he’d had seven major surgeries since beginning his UFC tenure and he had his eighth booked for after the Werdum fight. His demand, if you could call it that? A health care policy. And really, if any fighter was warranted in asking for that, it was Cain Velasquez.

Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go that way. While the MMAAA and their goals went a little quiet after the press conference, evidently someone within the Nevada State Athletic Commission was listening to what Cain was saying. And they clearly didn’t like the idea of a guy who needed immediate surgery fighting at UFC 207. So despite claiming he was ready to fight, just days before the show it was revealed that he’d been pulled from the card; the NSAC had determined him unfit to fight due to his ongoing back issues.

A bang or a whimper?

Since his removal from UFC 207, we’ve barely heard a peep from Cain. A recent Twitter statement revealed that he’d had back surgery in January, but a timeline for his return was unable to be provided, although he did say that he wanted to fight the winner of the upcoming title fight between Miocic and Dos Santos.

And so we return to that Meltzer quote, really. For me, a healthy Cain Velasquez is still the best Heavyweight on the planet right now. And I’m not knocking Miocic – who’s a fantastic talent in his own right – but realistically, I can’t see an area where he has an advantage over a healthy Cain. Stipe’s wrestling is great, but Cain’s is better, and on the feet, I’d argue Velasquez is the better, more varied striker too. And nobody has cardio like Sea Level Cain. The big question is simply his health. Can a guy who’s now had eight surgeries and has been fighting professionally – mostly at the top of the game too – for ten years really get back to the form that saw him crush the likes of Lesnar, Dos Santos and Nogueira?

And if he can’t return to form and either decides to hang it up for good – or worse, comes back a shadow of his former self and ends up losing to the likes of Miocic – what is his legacy? For all his accomplishments, right now it’s hard to argue that he’s surpassed Fedor, despite arguably having a stronger list of opponents when you look at them in hindsight.

Maybe his legacy is simply this – whether he comes back to form or doesn’t, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Heavyweight as good as Cain was at his absolute peak – either the Lesnar fight or the second JDS fight, take your pick. I think that Cain destroys everyone from peak Fedor to peak Nogueira to peak Cro Cop. And maybe that does indeed make him the best Heavyweight in MMA history even if his legacy may not quite end up showing that. I’m glad I got to see him from the beginning of his career and I hope we get much more from him, even if that’s just a fool’s hope.

Until next time.....