The journey back to the UFC heavyweight belt for Cain Velasquez could be very long and his team knows that after having to withdraw from UFC 196, his position is not good. However, there is nothing more important to him than his health, so they will assume the costs.
Javier Mendez, Velasquez's Mexican coach and responsible for AKA, the gym where the UFC's 205 and 185-pound titles reside with Daniel Cormier and Luke Rockhold, granted an interview to La Aficion and talked about the problem in the former heavyweight champion's sciatic nerve, after UFC President Dana White stated that Stipe Miocic will be the next challenger for Fabricio Werdum.
"Today, we don't know what will happen. Cain has the pains, and it's hard to know when it happened because it's not something that happened overnight, it's been a recurring injury for years. For now, we have to accept what the UFC says, we can't complain, that's the fight business and if he (Dana White) says we have to knock out two or three guys, we have to do what he says, he's the boss.
I don't know if it's fair, I don't know if the fans want to see that, I mean I would like to see Cain fight for the belt again because I think he's the best heavyweight in the world, but that's what I would like", he expressed.
Werdum and Miocic could face each other in Rio de Janeiro for UFC 198.
Many UFC fans agree with him, because despite the rise of Miocic, Velasquez vs. Werdum 2 is the fight that can generate the most excitement in the heavyweight division. Few see the rest of the top 10 capable of defeating Velasquez.
"Personally, I don't think they are, I think he's the best. Injuries happen, this didn't happen in one practice, it happened through many practices, for years, it was very common for him to have back problems," added the coach.
Mendez, a former world kickboxing champion born in Mexico, has a very close relationship with Cain and assures that they are not currently in a position to ask for opponents or return to Mexico City with the local audience, and anyway, that's not his pupil's style, because "Cain doesn't ask for fights, I don't do anything (with the negotiation), it's always his decision, but he won't ask for anything, Cain doesn't do that. I don't have the freedom to speak for him, although Cain knows that if he fights in Mexico, he must be at least one month ahead, but I would like it to be six weeks."
The coach also said that they will not take the risk of another short preparation in case they return to Mexico City, where the altitude decreased his performance.
Cain Velasquez has had to withdraw from UFC 172, 180, and 196 due to injury.
Now, we just have to wait and see if the rumors of a fight with Alistair Overeem (who is currently not under contract with the UFC) or the winner of the recently announced fight between Ben Rothwell and Junior Dos Santos in Croatia come true.
"Whatever the UFC decides is what Cain will accept because I've never seen Cain refuse anyone. So whatever they decide, Cain will say yes, he's never been in a position to ask to fight anyone, so they will tell him who to fight against and the date so we can see if he's healthy or not. This surgery went well, the incision in the bone is what has to heal, but friends who have seen him say he's happier than ever, that he's walking straighter than ever, so we will have a healthier and more motivated former champion looking to reclaim his title," he valued.
Cancelling a third fight due to injury was very complicated, but necessary, and it was Cain himself who informed White on Sunday, January 22nd that he would not be healthy for the February 6th fight.
"Cain called me after talking to Dana, he was very sad. He told me his back didn't hold up. They told him they were going to inject cortisone and he would have six or seven days before he could train hard, but during the time he had pain, we trained boxing and other things, we didn't spar but we did mitt work at a fairly decent intensity. In the last week of sparring, we trained on a Saturday and I told him we would work hard, we did and everything went fantastic in training, but the next day, Sunday, he called me," Mendez confessed.
Hours before White announced on his social media that Velasquez was out, Mendez shared a photo of the Saturday night training, where they felt one hundred percent, "I thought everything was excellent, I even left a message for Dana on Saturday night because of a friend of mine. The next day I had no idea the fight would be cancelled and neither did Cain, but he woke up in a lot of pain but the doctors told him that another injection wouldn't do any good so he had no choice but to withdraw and he would have much worse damage, with no possibility of fighting again, and that would put us in a very bad position."
Velasquez will be able to return to training in 3 to 4 weeks, while it is expected that Werdum and Miocic will fight in Rio de Janeiro in the month of May at UFC 198.