Cain Velasquez - The GOAT that never was

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He was supposed to be the best. The next big thing. A spiritual successor to the great Fedor Emelianenko. Instead of chiseling his name into the mixed martial art's pillar alongside the sport's greats, Cain Velasquez finds himself stuck in limbo.

On Saturday night in the high-altitude Mexican capital at UFC 188, Fabricio Werdum thrashed Cain Velasquez in front of thousands of mortified native supporters. Velasquez entered the Octagon anxiously pacing back and forth as Buffer reeled off his credentials, while his Brazilian opponent stood opposite, grinning from ear to ear like a Cheshire Cat.

The bell sounded and both men immediately locked horns. Velasquez smacked and Werdum whacked. Cain trucked forward with an onslaught of varied attacks: punches, leg kicks, digs inside the clinch... but for every move the champ made, Werdum outmaneuvered with cunning intelligence.

The two-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion was always one step ahead of his unrelenting opponent. Velasquez would initiate a clinch against the cage -- Werdum would counter with a Muay Thai plum of his own. Cain would swing an overhand -- Fabricio would counter with a stinging straight down the middle.

Werdum patiently calculated his every move, as if Cain were a pawn on a chess board, until the crafty veteran executed his final manoeuvre in round three. Checkmate. The submission wizard locked Velasquez up in a guillotine choke, relieving the champion of his divisional duty.

It's the second time we've seen heavyweight gold slip from Cain's grasp; the proud Mexican was usurped by Junior dos Santos in 2011 just shortly after making mincemeat of Brock Lesnar at UFC 121. Velasquez went on to avenge his loss to JDS and reclaim the throne at UFC 155. Can he do the same to Fabricio Werdum? Can he live up to his billing as the next heavyweight great?

Velasquez has all the tools to reign supreme as the 'baddest man on the planet' but if those tools aren't being oiled and utilized effectively, they may as well be discarded. The men responsible behind operating the cogs in the Velasquez machine are the head coaches at AKA -- and they're doing a damn poor job.

For years, Velasquez has suffered from injury complications. In fact, prior to his championship clash with Fabricio Werdum at UFC 188, it'd been years since Javier Mendez' star pupil had set foot in the Octagon. The 32-year-old ravaged his knee during a training session and was forced to sit on the sidelines for almost two years. With training exercises like this and rigorous heavy sparring practice in the gym, is it any surprise?

The blood, sweat, and tears accumulated from iron-handed coaching regimes may breed champions, but at what cost? What use is sitting on a throne you can't defend? It's a wonder Velasquez didn't make his entrance to the Octagon on Saturday night clutching onto a zimmer frame. Daily bouts of intensive sparring may yield short-term results, but the long-term consequences are devastating. It didn't end so well for former Chute Boxe berserkers Wanderlei Silva or Shogun Rua, nor has former AKA member Josh Koscheck managed to mask his gym battles.

Retired veteran Jamie Varner spoke of the dangers associated with frequent sparring earlier in March:

"My career got cut short because I was sparring three days a week, with bigger opponents," Varner says in an interview with Cage Fanatic. "I had Ryan Bader, Aaron Simpson, Carlos Condit. Those were my sparring partners from like 2006 to 2010. So I had a lot of head trauma just sparring with those big guys."

"If I could give any advice to young, upcoming fighters - you're a fighter, you don't need to spar to prove how tough you are. So spar once a week. [...] "Sparring is a tool that is used to work on game plans, and to see where you are condition wise, cardiovascularly. You don't need to spar three days a week to prove you're tough. You're fighting in the UFC, you're obviously tough."

On top of the stone age training methods, the American Kickboxing Academy weren't wise enough to adjust their pupil to the elevated altitudes of Mexico City. Two week's Velasquez had spent preparing in Mexico. Fabricio Werdum had been honing and sharpening his craft on foreign soil for months.

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id werdum really that good? he looked amazing the other night and he has shown incredible amounts of improvement since his first UFC run.

Id love to see JDS vs Werdum rematch shit id even settle for a reem rematch.

The funny thing is, there's so many match-making possibilities for both of these guys now because even though Cain was the champ for quite awhile, he hardly ever fought. And when he did, it was against the same two guys.
Usually if a champ has been champ for a few years, he's at least partially cleaned out his division. Not so with Velasquez.

trigg do you think rust, and altitude played a factor into this fight?

I wouldnt think ring rust played into it, because he's always having long layoffs, so he should be used to it by now. lol
I actually don't think Cain even really had time to get tired in this fight. He started to slow down before getting subbed, but it's not like he was doing wonderful and then gassed out. Werdum was putting it on him from the opening bell. Cain was returning fire, but it just seemed like Werdum was landing the faster, cleaner punches, and more of them. I'm more inclined to credit Werdum for taking the fight out of Cain early, not the altitude or Cain's possibly low gas tank.

I do think Cain looked gassed early to me. Not making excuses because Werdum kicked his ass but Cain was definitely tired early. His legs looked rubbery and that was before he started getting rocked.

Yeah, my buddy commented that Cain looked drunk

Hmmm, I guess I'll have to watch it again. I seem to remember Cain looking pretty fresh in round one and giving as good as he got, and then falling off only after Werdum started getting the better of the exchanges, so I chalked it up to Cain getting his brain rattled more than being gassed.

werdum made cain look small in that cage. i never realized the size of werdum until he fought cain.. so many possibilities for the HW division right now.

Werdum is probably considered one of the best ever at this point in time.... allbeit pretty quietly.
He has wins over 10 guys that were in the top 10 at some point in their career (many when he fought them):
Cain Velasquez
Mark Hunt
Travis Browne
Big Nog
Roy Nelson
FEDOR
Antonio Silva
Gabe Gonzaga
Brandon Vera
Allistair Overeem

That's pretty fucking impressive! I can't think of one other HW with a resume like that in MMA history.

At this point I think a JDS rematch has to be done.
Then maybe Arlovsky (hopefully not the 2nd most boring fight in UFC history) if he can knock down another top 10 guy.

rothwell vs werdum would be interesting

stock wrote:

Werdum is probably considered one of the best ever at this point in time.... allbeit pretty quietly.
He has wins over 10 guys that were in the top 10 at some point in their career (many when he fought them):
Cain Velasquez
Mark Hunt
Travis Browne
Big Nog
Roy Nelson
FEDOR
Antonio Silva
Gabe Gonzaga
Brandon Vera
Allistair Overeem

That's pretty fucking impressive!  I can't think of one other HW with a resume like that in MMA history.

At this point I think a JDS rematch has to be done.
Then maybe Arlovsky (hopefully not the 2nd most boring fight in UFC history) if he can knock down another top 10 guy.

Yeah it's hard to argue with that. He might have the most impressive resume in HW history as far as wins over the quality of opponents is concerned.
It's probably about time to start giving the guy his just dues!

OK, so I just watched the fight again, and I'm actually even more convinced that Cain's state was due to getting his ass kicked early on, and not a cardio or altitude issue.

They were exchanging heavily very early on, and Cain was getting his head snapped back with practically every Werdum punch, but  to his credit, he kept coming. Then at one point Cain was getting back to his feet in the first, and Werdum caught him with two huge knees to the head. Cain clinched, but he wasn't doing much. I think he was hurt at that point. Immediately after they broke, Werdum started to basically land at will, and Cain looked lost. From there he just got absolutely lit up for the rest of the fight. Rogan started making the altitude excuse immediately in the beginning of the 2nd once it was obvious how beat to shit Cain was, but he apparently wasn't paying attention to just how hard Werdum cracked him over and over again.
Props to Cain for hanging in there, but I think he was hurt badly early in the first and that was ultimately his downfall.
In reality, it's really hard to believe that a guy with unmatched cardio and pace was undone by altitude within minutes of the first round.

Its a hard job getting punched in the face by big guys who can kill you. A dominant HW champ is one who can avoid taking punches in the head.

Triggerman99 wrote:

OK, so I just watched the fight again, and I'm actually even more convinced that Cain's state was due to getting his ass kicked early on, and not a cardio or altitude issue.

They were exchanging heavily very early on, and Cain was getting his head snapped back with practically every Werdum punch, but  to his credit, he kept coming. Then at one point Cain was getting back to his feet in the first, and Werdum caught him with two huge knees to the head. Cain clinched, but he wasn't doing much. I think he was hurt at that point. Immediately after they broke, Werdum started to basically land at will, and Cain looked lost. From there he just got absolutely lit up for the rest of the fight. Rogan started making the altitude excuse immediately in the beginning of the 2nd once it was obvious how beat to shit Cain was, but he apparently wasn't paying attention to just how hard Werdum cracked him over and over again.
Props to Cain for hanging in there, but I think he was hurt badly early in the first and that was ultimately his downfall.
In reality, it's really hard to believe that a guy with unmatched cardio and pace was undone by altitude within minutes of the first round.

I watched it again and I disagree with you again lol.

Ah well.