Cain Velasquez's route

This is a text I wrote on the 18th of February, in 2015

Cain Velasquez is the current and a two time UFC heavyweight champion. I remember watching his first fight in the UFC, watching UFC 83, there were quite a few references to Cain Velasquez from the commentators, quoting other fighters opinions about Velasquez.. creating  a huge buzz around his name, describing him as a ''real monster in the gym''.  

This first fight that was in the preliminary card at UFC 83, had Cain fighting Brad Morris.(2008) Brad Morris has no wiki page atm, but his record at the time of the fight was 8-2.   Cain won in less than 3 minutes by TKO due to strikes. 

His second fight was against Jake O' Brien. A kind of a game fighter who had his demons though, and he was thrown at Cain as an appetizer. TKO in less than 3 minutes again.


Third fight, a Croatian if im not mistaken, named  Denis Stojnic, where Sherdog lists him as 10-3. (lost to Struve as well)


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Cain was living up to the hype in this one and a half year and 3 fight winning streak and 5-0 record, but there were some skeptics questioning his striking skills. That led in Cain's first real test in the octagon,AKA Cheick Kongo. There were two negatives that Cain took back to the gym after that fight and one positive, the win. The negatives were both equally alarming: i)pillow fists - ground and pound, making people think that a lightweight would do 10x the damage, ii) Exposed in the striking department, being dropped 3 times and arguably,knocked out flash at least once during the fight (If I remember correctly, he admitted it) 





Cain won the fight by unanimous decision.He was dropped in all 3 rounds but controlled and 'punished' Kongo for almost 4:40 minutes in each round. Passing guard and throwing down with whatever he had in him,securing positions and throwing punches to keep busy so he wouldn't have to get back up. 



Part of the inadequate ground and pound was the fact that Cain was hurt, but that was the beggining of a much more intense Cain Velasquez in his next bouts.




Four months later he takes against BIG Ben Rothwell, finishing him in a premature stoppage in the second round due to strikes. Cain was hitting Rothwell and taking him down left and right in the octagon, where at one point Ben was with his back against the cage and on the floor. Cainwas standing over him, throwing punches, while Rothwell was trying to protect himself and get back up. As soon as the ref decided to step in Rothwell was already standing. Controversial stoppage nevertheless and ill leave it here as it is.


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Cain is already 4 out of 4 in the UFC but still hasn't managed to create even half of the aura offear that Junior Dos Santos had at the time, or Brock Lesnar for that matter. 

He was about to fight Noguiera and many fans, including myself were already fantasizing Big Nog, taking an absolute shit load of punishment by Brock, only to submit him, but Cain was about to spoil all that. With fast and deadly hands,he knocks out Nog at 2:20 of the first round. That was the moment where people just stopped talking for a moment cause they knew that another great had arrived and an older great had departed. A Historic moment for MMA one could say with the infamous ' passing of the torch''.





These efforts resulted in a top contender status, by-passing JDS, his future Nemesis, where he challenged Brock Lesnar for the belt. Fight was a short one for Brock Lesnar. Coming from that epic title defense against Carwin, Cain had done his homework. He picked his shots and methodically finished him in the first round. Cain was the UFC HW champion.


A fight with JDS was long time coming. Cain went in with the determination of an undefeated fighter, but some doubt in his eyes. Junior Dos Santos threw a wild overhand behind Cain's ear and finished him on the ground. That was Velasquez first loss, sometime in the far 2011, 4 years ago. 


Since that fight, Cain has fought 4 more times, resulting in an average of one fight per year. (twice in '12 and twice in '13) In these four fights he has managed to have a top contender bout with Antonio Silva(R1 3:36,TKO), recaptured the belt from JDS (Unanimous Decision), then defended it against Bigfoot(R1 1:21 TKO) and eventually having a 4th fight, which was another fight against JDS (R5 TKO choke which led to a slam and punches). I don't know what you guys think, but it seems to me like Cain is the first manager-fighter. And by that I mean like an executive - fighter. He has other fighters working for him. Dos Santos is taking out every possible threat for the belt, any different style of opponent and Cain is just fighting Junior. Junior takes punishment, keeps fighting, Cain keeps hurting himself.


He has a torn meniscus and sprained MCL, his knees sound kind of fucked to me. It's been almost 2 years and Cain is nowhere to be found. If a champion is inactive for more than a year he should be stripped of his belt. I think it's time the UFC takes this gentleman's belt. 


Here is what Cain had to say about this and I rest my case: 

“It doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “I don’t care. As long as I fight and the next fight will be for a title, I’m happy with that. I really don’t care about having the title (and) the name that comes with it. I really don’t care as long as I fight for the title and I earn it.”



While I write these lines Cain is 13-1 and he is still refusing to fight



''He looked really impressive against Bigfoot and against JDS the second time.''

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