Cain Velasquez Profile for UFC 160

I originally wrote this article for  Foxdeportes.com prior to Cain Velasquez’s title defense against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva at UFC 160 on May 25^th, 2013. I asked Cain about his first fight with Bigfoot, his thoughts of a trilogy with Junior Dos Santos and whether he would ever fight Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones and AKA teammate Daniel Cormier.

As he embarks on his second reign as UFC Heavyweight Champion, Cain Velasquez is focused on only on the present and what is directly in front of him.

As the main event of UFC 160 on Saturday, May 25^th from the MGM Grand Garden Arena, the 11-1 Mexican American Velasquez, will be defending his title against the heavy handed striker and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva who possesses a record of 18-4 and earned his title shot after two straight knockout victories over Travis Browne and Alistar Overeem. Silva’s other victims includes former

UFC Heavyweight Champions Andrei Arvloski and Ricco Rodriguez and former Pride Heavyweight Champion and MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko.

This is a rematch of their bout last May at UFC 146 bought where Velasquez quickly took down Bigfoot after catching a leg kick six seconds into the fight and then proceeded to bust Silva’s forehead open with a series of elbows from a ground and pound attack from Silva’s half guard. After the referee called timeout to have a doctor check the cut between Silva’s eyes, Velasquez used his grappling to maintain top control and finished the bloodied and battered Silva with a series unanswered left hand strikes to Silva head before the referee stopped the fight 3:36 into the first round.

Despite the dominating performance over Silva in their first meeting, Velasquez knows that he must remain focused on his training and on the fight once he steps into the Octagon against his 6-foot 4 inch tall and 265 pound appropriately named Bigfoot and not make the same mistake that Overeem made against him.

“I think of it as a whole new fight which it is,” said Velasquez. “I think guys have underestimated him in the past and that is how he came out victorious. I can’t underestimate him. That is worst thing I can do. My whole focus is defending the title.”

In addition to already having met in the Octagon just 12 months ago, Velasquez has continued to study Silva’s game and has worked to develop a game plan and strategy to defeat the massive fighter that has to cut weight to in order to meet the heavyweight weight limit of 265 pounds. While Velasquez has developed a reputation of being the best conditioned heavyweight in the UFC, he is not quick to assume it will be a distinct advantage over Silva.

“He has great cardio,” Velasquez said. “I have seen his past fights where he has gone the distance. For a big guy, he has good cardio. The only thing I can do is be on top the whole time as far be better at him at the boxing, be better than him at the wrestling, be better at him  all around and that is what I have to do.”

When asked if he felt if he felt Silva’s fight game has evolved in his last two impressive victories, Velasquez responded “I think he is the same fighter. With his punching power, the thing I can’t do is stay in front of him too long. I think that is his best bet. (Bigfoot has) really strong, punches. I need to keep moving. I need to do my type of fight. Do my boxing and do my wrestling.”

While he has thoroughly studied Silva’s fighting style and developed a boxing and wrestling based game plan to counter Silva’s size, cardio, and punching power, he also knows the importance of actually executing the game plan once the Octagon door closes and the fight begins. This was an important lesson he learned during his first matchup against Junior Dos Santos on the first UFC on FOX card in November 2011. Velasquez and his team had a game plan in place, but he failed to execute the plan and got caught with a powerful overhand right hand from the deadly striker Dos Santos before being finished on the ground only 1:04 into the first round.

He lamented on the experience and said “After that fight it was just learning when fight night comes and you have a game plan to stick with it and implement it right away. So that is the one thing I took away from that fight.”

When the opportunity came to avenge the loss and regain his crown from Dos Santos at UFC 155 this past December, Velasquez executed his game plan, winning all 5 rounds and becoming the first fighter in UFC history to land triple digit significant strikes and double digit take downs in a single fight with 111 significant strikes and 11 takedowns on Dos Santos.

After regaining the crown, Velasquez visited Mexico City as part of a UFC media tour this past January. Although boxing is the traditional combat sport of Mexico, Velasquez received the rock star treatment as he was mobbed by thousands of fans at an autograph signing.

When asked how he felt about the warm welcome and fan support in Mexico City, he responded “It is great feeling for sure. Not just my name growing, but the UFC is growing. It is definitely growing internationally.  I wasn’t expecting it. That was definitely a surprise. I have been over there before a couple of times and it seems like the popularity is always growing. That last time over there though was definitely the biggest though.”

He has embraced his role as a hero and role model to the Mexican fight fans. “It is a great feeling” said Velasquez. “I am just doing what I am as far as fighting and training. It is honor and I am happy to be in this position and I am going to work harder to stay in this position.”

As a young fight fan, Velasquez admired the fighting style of the great Mexican pugilist Julio Cesar Chavez. With the growth of the UFC in Mexico and Latin America, he believes there is a lot of growth potential in both the fan base and fighters hailing from the country.

“I think with time, this sport is so exciting to watch, you are going to have fighters from everywhere, especially from Mexico make the transition (from boxing) and the popularity will keep growing. It will take on more and more over there and more fighters will come.”

While he knows he must stay focused on the task at hand and first get past Bigfoot Silva on May 25^th, he is open to both old and new challenges in the UFC Heavyweight division. UFC President Dana White already went on record saying that if both Cain and Dos Santos are victorious at UFC 160, the two will meet again in a rubber match for the UFC Heavyweight Championship.

When asked about the possibility of a trilogy with his rival Dos Santos, he stated “I am definitely looking forward to the third fight… I can’t look past Bigfoot so my focus is on that.”

His reaction was the same when asked if he would be interested in a potential super fight with UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones who has teased the idea of eventually moving up to the Heavyweight division.

When asked about a super fight with Jones, Velasquez quickly responded “Definitely. If he does move up and works his way up, definitely for sure.”

One fighter that we will not be seeing him do battle with down the road is friend, training partner, wrestling coach, and fellow UFC Heavyweight Daniel Cormier. When asked how the two would co-exist if Cormier could not cut down to the Light Heavyweight limit of 205 pounds, Velasquez responded “I see him dropping down. He said he is going to. Maybe have one more fight at heavyweight. His goal right now is to drop down.”