Ever since former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez lost the title to Junior dos Santos in November of last year, he hasn’t thought about much besides getting the belt back.
Velasquez said as much in a recent media luncheon (via MMA Fighting), admitting:
It’s been eating at me for a while. [The loss] definitely did happen, and it hurt. It sucked. I’ve been waiting for a while to get revenge back.
At the UFC’s initial event on Fox last year, Velasquez was knocked out by JDS in just 64 seconds in the card’s headlining bout.
This past May, the former Arizona State Sun Devil showed he still belongs with the division’s elite when he brutally battered and bloodied Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in his UFC debut at UFC 146.
The win was enough to earn Velasquez a rematch against the hard-hitting Brazilian at UFC 155, which takes places on Dec. 29 in Las Vegas, Nev.
Velasquez, who had a 13-month layoff due to rotator cuff surgery after winning the title from Brock Lesnar at UFC 121, also told reporters on hand at the luncheon his take on injuries in MMA:
It’s just so easy to get hurt in this sport. Whether it be cuts, your joints, bones, everything can mess up at any given time. The way that we train is just so much like a real fight …You definitely don’t know (who’s going to be on the card until fight night). Because guys, we’re going to just be in the gym training our butts off, and that’s it. We don’t worry about getting hurt in the gym. We just don’t. We go in, and we just try to get the best workout we can, compete against our teammates, because that’s what we’re doing. We’re always trying to be the best even inside the gym.
The 30-year-old Mexican-American fighter gets another chance at championship gold largely due to the fact that former Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem is serving a Nevada State Athletic Commission-issued suspension for elevated testosterone levels.
Despite the suspension, UFC president Dana White confirmed a few weeks ago that Overeem will meet the winner of Velasquez vs. dos Santos with the heavyweight title on the line.
Was JDS‘ victory over Velasquez a fluke, or should we expect more of the same when the two heavyweights clash next month?
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