Last Saturday, champion Cain Velasquez reentered the Octagon for the first time since his title tilt against Brock Lesnar in October of last year, where he bested the then heavyweight kingpin en route to a first-round knockout victory.
Velasquez came into his bout with Junior dos Santos at the Honda Center in Anaheim at a career-high weight of 249 pounds—10 pounds well above his usual limit.
The svelte Dos Santos wasted little time in dropping Velasquez to the canvas with an overhand right before pouncing on his downed opponent, finishing off the Mexican-American in just 64 seconds.
Dissenters have already come to the aid of Velasquez—who has remained relatively unspoken about the loss—stating that his loss is a result of the famed “ring rust” theory, popularized by UFC President Dana White in the past, though the hypothesis has been disproven time and time again.
There’s no better example than that of former world champion Rashad Evans, who returned from a debilitating knee injury and 15-month layoff before his bout with rival Tito Ortiz this August. Evans dominated “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy,” stopping Ortiz on strikes in the second round, making him only the second man to hold that honor.
Ortiz is no world-beater these days, but he remains as durable as they come and was coming off a career-resurgent performance against The Ultimate Fighter Season 8 winner Ryan Bader, dropping the wrestling stud before submitting him inside of the first round.
Though Velasquez is not playing “pity me,” the fact remains that the AKA product simply didn’t do what was necessary for him in order to be in the same condition that has earned him the belt in the past.
Albeit the bout didn’t last long enough to be indicative of how it could have played out in later rounds, we are all now left with the impression that an out-of-shape and flat Cain Velasquez was unprepared for a pivotal moment of his career not because of “cage rust,” but because he didn’t do what was necessary for victory.
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