Velasquez wants his belt back. Photo by Josh Hedges, courtesy of Zuffa LCC via Getty Images.
As solid and fierce a heavyweight as they come, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos’ challenger for the UFC title, demonstrated that he has feelings — at least when it comes to the heavyweight belt. The 30-year-old former champion said in a video interview on Affliction’s YouTube page that he needs to fill a void.
“Something feels missing,” Velasquez said. “I need that belt. I need to be the top guy, the No. 1 guy. This is where I’m supposed to be. I’m going to go in and take that belt and keep it.”
In the video, Velasquez revisits the mistake he made during his first encounter with “Cigano” in November of 2011, when he was knocked out in the first round. The loss came before the eyes of millions of spectators who tuned in to the live broadcast of the event by network TV channels Fox and Globo in the U.S. and Brazil, respectively.
“The thing I learned from the first fight [with dos Santos] is, if I have a game plan, I need to execute it. Punch, kick, wrestle for a purpose every time. Anytime I go into a fight, the fans are pretty much pleased. Even though I’m going in with my game plan, my style of fighting is really aggressive and fast-paced. I don’t really like hitting submissions. I’d rather punch guys in the face. That’s what I do, and I think people want to see that. So that’s what they get,” said the Jiu-Jitsu brown belt from team Guerilla JJ.
Yesterday, MiddleEasy.com started a bit of a buzz by releasing a video suggesting that Cain had suffered a serious knee injury 14 days prior to his first encounter with his Brazilian dethroner.
*Following the publishing of this article, the YouTube video of Velasquez’s injury was made private and unavailable.
UFC 155
MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada
December 29, 2012
- Junior Cigano vs Cain Velasquez
- Jim Miller vs Joe Lauzon
- Tim Boetsch vs Costa Philippou
- Yushin Okami vs Alan Belcher
- Chris Leben vs Karlos Vemola
- Brad Pickett vs Eddie Wineland
- Erik Perez vs Byron Bloodworth
- Michael Johnson vs Myles Jury
- Leonard Garcia vs Cody Mckenzie
- Phil de Fries vs Todd Duffee
For more UFC and MMA coverage,
visit GRACIEMAG.com’s Choke MMA section
