There’s no escaping the talk when it comes to Cain Velasquez. Mention the future of the heavyweight division and the same three names will always pop up – Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin, and that of the Salinas, California native who, at 3-0, is already being mentioned as a future world title challenger.
When you’re 25, that can be a dangerous situation. You can either get engulfed by the hype and rendered unable to perform on fight night, or you can believe your press clippings and let outside forces negatively affect your preparation for what got you all the attention in the first place.
But Velasquez doesn’t fall into either category. Admittedly shy, he says, “I really just want to work out and fight.” Ask anyone who knows him, and they’ll vouch for the truthfulness of that statement. The member of the American Kickboxing Academy team is a gymrat who relies not only on his wrestling ability when the bell rings, but on the confidence that he could probably outwork anyone standing across from his on fight night.
“I’m a perfectionist in the gym,” said Velasquez. “I know my skills all aren’t where they’re supposed to be or where I want them to be. I need everything to be perfect.”
Will he know perfection when he gets there?
“I don’t know if I’m ever gonna be happy with it,” he laughs. But even though Velasquez has only been fighting professionally since October of 2006, the former two-time All-American wrestler from Arizona State has been improving in leaps and bounds, and he promises even more new wrinkles to his game when he returns to the Octagon this Saturday night to take on fellow prospect Jake O’Brien.
One of the things he has been working on is walking the line between offense and defense, namely how to be aggressive without paying too steep of a price on the way in. To get there, Velasquez has had plenty of sessions where he has been forced to play defense while his teammates tee off on him with no fear of return fire.
“I’m trying to have more of a controlled style than what my wrestling style was – which was just to go in there and brawl,” said Velasquez. “We’re working on being aggressive, but not getting hit in the process. (In some sessions) the coaches have me just defend while the guys throw everything they want at me 100 percent. Doing that I get to see a lot more punches now than I have before.”
He didn’t see many on April 19th, when he took out Brad Morris in one-sided fashion at UFC 83. Velasquez dropped his foe seconds into the bout and didn’t let up until the fight was stopped at 2:10 of the first round.
“I didn’t know how the fight was gonna turn out,” he said. “I trained for a three round fight, but when the end comes like that, I’m pretty happy with it.”
And if he was nervous about his Octagon debut, he sure didn’t show it.
“I was warming up really good and I kept replaying the plan in my head about what was gonna happen and what the gameplan was for the fight, so I had my mind on that,” he recalled. “And once I got out there, I put my head down, kept thinking about the gameplan, and when the ref said ‘fight’, that’s what was on my mind. That kept me from getting the jitters and getting super nervous.”
There was no time for vacations or celebrations after the bout though. It was back to the gym in San Jose to help his teammates get ready for their fights and also get in some quality mat time with light heavyweight contender Lyoto Machida, who made a pit stop at AKA before his May 24th win over Tito Ortiz. It was during these workouts that Velasquez’ name got even more attention for the good work he gave the unbeaten Brazilian.
“That was awesome because nobody gives a look like he does,” said Velasquez of his work with ‘The Dragon,’ which may have been as beneficial for the rising heavyweight as it was for Machida. “He keeps that distance, he’s super quick, and when he wants to engage, he’ll engage. He’s tough to take down, so all the aspects of the game that other people really don’t have, he does, so he gives you a great look. He’s got great jiu-jitsu, he’s a great training partner, and he really showed me where I was at. Before that, I trained with really tough guys, but you always have in the back of your head, ‘can I beat these guys?’ Training with him, it put in my head that I deserve to be here and I can compete with these guys.”
And entering Saturday’s fight with O’Brien, who he holds a collegiate wrestling win over, Velasquez’ confidence is sky-high, but not to the point of sounding cocky.
“My wrestling game is there, and I think my striking and jiu-jitsu game is there as well, so it doesn’t matter who I fight against; I feel like I’m ready for any style,” he said. “With Jake O’Brien, he’s a fellow wrestler, and I’ve wrestled him before, and I feel pretty confident and ready for this fight.”
Ask him about the future after July 19th, and Velasquez won’t even go there. He’s mature enough to realize that the only way he keeps moving forward is to keep winning, and if he takes his eye off O’Brien, he could be looking at a loss. That’s something this young man isn’t even thinking about, and if you want to say nice things about him, that’s fine, but he probably isn’t even listening.
“People can say what they want to say, but the book’s unwritten yet, and nothing is for sure,” he said. “Anything can happen and I’ve got to keep putting in the work in the gym, keep getting better, and keep winning fights. They can say all they want to say, but if I don’t win the fights, and do it impressively, then all that talk won’t be heard anymore.”
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