The wasted GOAT potential of Cain Velasquez

[blewgums]

Durability goes a long way in this sport. Any sport, really.

 

[Not A Real Fan]

He's a good fighter, maybe great. When he's able to fight.

But don't even begin to compare him to GSP.

GSP defended the hell out of his title. GSP fought a lot. He spent a huge amount of time in the Octagon.

Cain... hell, just constant issues.... Which is too bad. I think on a good day he could beat any UFC heavyweight, of any era.

Hence why I qualified his GOAT potential as wasted.

 

[BigMuffler]

tell me someone right now with a straight face aside maybe miocic, who's a tough fight for him?

Werdum, Overeem, Barnett. I said this before the first Werdum fight.

 

[Toco]

Werdum, Overeem, Barnett. I said this before the first Werdum fight.

40 year old barnett? haha

and eventually, reem would have given up

werdum, I would like to see the rematch, BUT

 

[BigMuffler]

40 year old barnett? haha

and eventually, reem would have given up

werdum, I would like to see the rematch, BUT

Werdum is also almost 40, Cain probably has the body of a man in his 40s anyway lol.

 

[IIIIIIII]

He's a good fighter, maybe great. When he's able to fight.

But don't even begin to compare him to GSP.

GSP defended the hell out of his title. GSP fought a lot. He spent a huge amount of time in the Octagon.

Cain... hell, just constant issues.... Which is too bad. I think on a good day he could beat any UFC heavyweight, of any era.

gsp being in the octagon for a long time is a negative for him, not a positive. being in the cage for long amounts of time means that you can't finish fights, which was the second-half of gsp's career.

 

[Der Eisbär]

He was never going to be the GOAT, his striking defense is complete dogshit. He stood with Kongo for 7 seconds in a 15 minute fight and almost died 3 times. He matches up well against JDS who has a non-existent clinch game and still got flatlined by him. He also got hurt by him multiple times in the next 2 fights. He fought Werdum who is a nightmare matchup for him stylistically and got absolutely destroyed.

Cain's "prime" was basically him fighting the same 2 guys over and over and over, and beating up on Brock Lesnar. Similarly to the Werdum fight, he gets annihilated by a prime Nogueira btw. One of the most overrated fighters on Sherdog.

Who said it's a requirement to be a goat to have good standing defense? Fedor has piss poor standing defense , got knocked out standing against fujita and maldo fucking nado and he's the hw goat.

The point of the OP is that we never really saw Cains ceiling because
A) the first fight against junior was a fluke which was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. His striking defense is "dogshit" yet he completely annihilated the best hw boxer the division has ever seen for 50 minutes. What???
B) his second loss, he clearly fucked up by coming into Mexico city late and not being acclimated. This isn't an excuse or bullshit, it is complete scientific fact and standard throughout combat sports to acclimate to high altitude before a fight in high altitude. He made an amateur mistake, didn't acclimate, and did something Cain has never done (gas in the first round).

So his only two losses were undeniable flukes/mistakes and other than that, Cain Velasquez has blown every fighter he's ever faced completely out of the fucking water. Yes he had potential to be the HW goat and squandered it with bad choices and bad training

 

[blewgums]

gsp being in the octagon for a long time is a negative for him, not a positive. being in the cage for long amounts of time means that you can't finish fights, which was the second-half of gsp's career.

Fuck you, ya dumb cunt.

It means he was healthy enough to fight, unlike Cain.

 

[Benjamin Burton]

by training hard he actually made the most out of his potential. training hard gave him his biggest asset, his cardio.

 

[IIIIIIII]

Fuck you, ya dumb cunt.

It means he was healthy enough to fight, unlike Cain.

fascinating rebuttal. it means exactly what i said. you're just upset because i told the truth.

 

[blewgums]

fascinating rebuttal. it means exactly what i said. you're just upset because i told the truth.

No, I'm upset because your mother is a whore.

 

[Ingjr]

If my aunt had a dick she'd be my uncle.

 

[Mixfight]

 

[ColombianFist]

Also USADA

Also overtraining in a barbaric way.

 

[ColombianFist]

Cain is by far one of the best HW but training in such way that 3-4 years of his prime were wasted on injuries and operations to fix him pretty much sead his legacy as a mma fighter. Asking AKA to change the way their fighters train is pretty much useless. Rockhold, DC and now Cain are pretty much the results of those policies.

 

[gevoudane]

I never have seen him to be any where near hw goat.

 

[WinZip]

He would have beaten Werdum next week

If the commission wouldn't let him fight, what makes you think that he'd be able to beat Werdum? Allegedly he's in pain just standing still for long periods of time. What the fuck is he gonna do in a fight?

 

[Thepaintbucket]

At this point I could give a shit about his career or legacy. He's free to screw his career up, just stop screwing everybody else in the HeavyWeight division over.

 

[Fedor>Cain]

Werdum, Overeem, Barnett. I said this before the first Werdum fight.

I think Barnett might be to washed up at this point. Prime Barnett probably destroys him though. Cain would still want no part of his ground game right now.

Cain vs Reem is a fight I want so bad. If Cain ever fights again, this is the fight to make. Overeem is such an awful matchup for him. Awesome tdd, huge power, uberknees, and good subs if the fight were to go to the ground. Reem's chin still makes that fight super interesting.

 

[mmacrisis]

You can't be in the coversation of GOAT if you don't fight. He is Mr Glass and that is just the truth.