It's Been Almost Two Years Since Cain Velasquez Last Fought

[Lots]

Cain looks TERRIBLE on TUF. I couldn’t believe how old and out of shape he looks.

Expecting to hear him announce retirement pretty soon.

Breaks my heart.

 

[billharford]

Didn't realize he had been so active

 

[HootyMcBoob]

Curtis Blaydes would be a good retirement fight for Cain. He could really put Blaydes over when he loses.

 

[RiotWyatt]

People once called him GOAT, then Werdum, then Stipe.

 

[MirRocksFedor]

Seems like a waste. Even from the last time he fought, he could've improved the talent pool at heavyweight and could've regained the belt (probably for the best that he didn't regain it)

Where do j find these gifs

 

[g*r*b]

Cormier was talking about how they were working to get Cain a fight on UFC 226 but obviously that didn't pan out. How many times now has Cain or his camp dangled a return date only to put it off again? A few months after surgery; no, late 2017; no, early 2018; no, mid-2018; no.....

It feels like someone who is in denial that the end has already come.

 

[Bowel-forged Stool]

They built the wall

 

[GOAT]

Feels like 4 years. I honestly can't remember his last fight. Something about sea level, though.

 

[Jin Akutsu]

He's done.

 

[whaleshark]

“Cayenne”

 

[TheRuthlessOne]

DC stole all of Cains powers

 

[Exemplar]

After he won the strap, I was certain that he was the guy that would go on to have the most HW title defenses. He looked like the complete fighter at HW. Boy that was wrong.

 

[Tuf_guy]

Where do j find these gifs

Spoiler

click on the smiley face, then the MMA tab

 

[PEDS Help me Post]

What does Cain do for a living?
Would he serve as a coach at his gym, seminars?
How does a former top level guy make ends meet?

He should probably do some training videos

 

[giusti825]

isnt that the guy that used to beat up JDS and Bigfoot all the time?

 

[WinZip]

 

[WinZip]

Where do j find these gifs

With the smilies/"emoji"

 

[Fedor>Cain]

Travis Browne at UFC 200 in 2016. Feels like yesterday.

Before that it was thirteen months since he last fought (loss to Werdum in 2015 high above sea level), and before that, he last competed in late-2013.

So Velasquez has fought twice in the last 4.5 years. Amazing.

Fedor fights more often than this bum in 2018.

Let that sink in.

 

[NaboliC]

Who? Barely remember him and don't remember any fight he has been in. More than a year without a fight and the fighter should be concidered retired

 

[g*r*b]

After he won the strap, I was certain that he was the guy that would go on to have the most HW title defenses. He looked like the complete fighter at HW. Boy that was wrong.

I sometimes wonder—if Cain had continued onward, would someone have "figured him out"?

Consider. Cain found the trick of beating JDS in the latter's 17th fight. Before that Junior was the Thunder God; now everyone tears their hair out about why he keeps backing up to the cage.

It took 20 bouts until Melendez caught on to the fact that pressuring Anthony Pettis was the way to counteract him. Even though he lost he laid the blueprint for every Pettis opponent to follow. Mr Wheaties Box had been struggling fitfully ever since; Showtime turned into So-So Time.

Cain has had only 16 fights. He has a splendid bullrush of a style, but it's pretty much the same approach each fight, and really depends upon a lot of things working together in good order. Look what happened in Mexico City: take away the cardio because of elevation, take away the wrestling for fear of Werdum's ground game...

It's not impossible that a few fights more and some canny cookie would have cracked Cain's code. (No way idiot Browne on his slip'n'slide down the rankings could do so, of course.) Then we might have lamented Cain's career for an entirely different reason.