Trainer: Velasquez Must Be Technically Better, Not Faster Than Lesnar

Filed under: UFCLOS ANGELES — Conventional wisdom in the fight game tells us that if you want to prepare for a specific opponent, the best way to do it is to bring in sparring partners that can mimic that opponent’s signature attributes.

But when yo…

Filed under:

LOS ANGELES — Conventional wisdom in the fight game tells us that if you want to prepare for a specific opponent, the best way to do it is to bring in sparring partners that can mimic that opponent’s signature attributes.

But when you’re facing Brock Lesnar, whose success is built at least in part on his uncommon physical attributes, where do you even find such a training partner?

This is the problem that Cain Velasquez‘s trainer, AKA’s Javier Mendez, had to confront over the last several weeks as they prepared for the UFC 121 title fight.

“See, that’s the dilemma. Where do you find someone like Brock to train with? You don’t. There is no one like him,” Mendez told MMA Fighting. “All we can do is bring Division I, high-level wrestlers in, like Daniel Cormier, Mark Ellis. That was it. You can’t duplicate Brock.”