Former UFC champion Cain Velasquez recently discussed the eight months he spent in jail. He was arrested on Feb. 28 and charged with attempted murder following an alleged shooting.
Velasquez was involved in a high-speed chase as he followed Harry Goularte, who is being charged with molesting Velasquez’s young relative. Goularte’s stepfather was hit in the altercation. Velasquez was released on $1 million bail last month.
The 40-year-old was a guest on the K100 w/ Konnan & Disco Podcast, where he spoke out about his jail experience for the first time.
“My mind ran like both sides of it [being positive about getting out versus not]. The bad side and the good side. It’s a thing, we always have to have faith, you know? It doesn’t matter what position we’re in, where we’re at. We always gotta look for the best-case scenario for us and just know that our lives are something much bigger and it’s all gonna work out for the best, always.”
“They had me in protective custody. It was very low-key. Only a few people that I was able to kind of hang out with and I guess the good thing about it is you got a lot of alone time with yourself and the bad thing about it was you got a lot of alone time with yourself.”
“It was crazy man… Probably the worst I’ve ever felt physically, mentally doing something… I feel like there was such a standstill, my body and my mind. For eight months, just a low way of thinking, versus when you’re out there competing, it’s a different way of thinking, how your brain and your mind have to be firing so, I felt like I was probably in the worst-case scenario for myself that I’ve ever been in and I feel like I always do this, I put a lot of pressure on myself and I just wanna be ready when I go out there and you know, compete and when I did, went out there and did it dude.”
Cain Velasquez Returned to Pro Wrestling After An Eight-Month Jail Stint
The California native performed at last month’s Lucha Libre AAA wrestling event. He was involved in a six-man tag team match at the newly built Mullett Arena at Velasquez’s alma mater Arizona State University. Velasquez scored the pinfall victory to cap off the night.
The mixed martial arts and wrestling community expressed their support for the former UFC star during his jail time. The hashtag “Free Cain” was used by many MMA fighters on social media. Velasquez noticed the overwhelming amount of support from his peers.
“Yeah man, I did [see the support ] and I have and I just wanna thank everyone. I truly appreciate everyone’s support in all of it. It means so much to me. It gave me a lot of strength when I was in there. So, yeah dude, I feel it and I just wanna thank everybody forever for that.” (h/t MMA News)
Velasquez is scheduled to have his next court hearing on Dec 28. He has pled not guilty to all his charges.