Former UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez is just over a week away from rematching Fabricio Werdum, who defeated the Mexican star in their UFC 188 match-up to capture Velazquez’s then-heavyweight title.
While Velasquez is training hard for his clash with ‘Vai Cavalo’, he is pushing through a significant amount of pain. Velasquez has been suffering from a pain in his right leg caused by a sciatic nerve issue, not allowing him to stand up for long periods of time.
The former heavyweight champ recently spoke to ESPN to discuss the issue, and touched on the fact that he already has surgery scheduled for after his fight with Werdum:
“It’s an achy pain that goes down your leg, and it gets to a point where if you’re standing for 10 minutes, you have to sit down. If you’re going out for a while, a half-hour, you know it’s going to be pretty painful. You have to sit down and take the compression off your back.
“The surgery is basically shaving off some bone to make room for my sciatic nerve. After the last surgery, the doctor said I might be pain-free forever, but knowing how I train and what I do as a fighter, the pain could come back. I didn’t really know how long I was going to feel good. It ended up being about a year.”
Velasquez then explained his decision to use cannabidiol oil (CBD) to help him manage the pain, as he has been taking it via oral spray:
“It’s the only thing that allows me to still train, and I’m not taking a harmful painkiller into my body that I’ll later become addicted to. I don’t know how everyone is going to feel about me saying this, but this is just one of the hard facts we as fighters have to go through. In the past, in the NFL, players have gotten addicted to painkillers. I don’t want to be an addict of some sort.”
And for those who believe it will hinder his performance come UFC 207, think again. Velasquez admitted to having used CBD oil before in previous training camps to help manage pain, and has trained rigorously in all aspects of the game in preparation for his bout with Werdum, and is hell-bent on getting revenge:
“As far as preparation, I’ve done everything. I’ve sparred, wrestled. I’m not missing workouts at all. I’ve done my conditioning – everything. I feel great going into this. This fight is about getting revenge, and that’s why I like it. It’s a fight I asked for, and it’s a fight I really wanted.”
Velasquez will meet Werdum on the main card of UFC 207 live on pay-per-view (PPV), from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 30, 2016.
The card is headlined by the return of former UFC women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey, who takes on current champ Amanda Nunes, making her return after over a year-long layoff from the Octagon.
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