It seems like it’s been an eternity since former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez last stepped foot inside the Octogan.
It’s been 27 months, actually, as Cain’s last contest saw him take out Travis Browne at UFC 200 in July of 2016. After undergoing surgery to repair his back in 2017, Cain has gone completely silent.
According to one of his teammates, Cain is healthy and ready to go, but Josh Thomson seems to believe contract negotiations is where the holdup is, as he recently explained to BJPenn.com.
“Yeah, he (Cain) is ready to fight man. He’s able to train and ready to fight. It’s just a matter of, you know, I think the UFC has a lot of stuff working against them in regards dealing with him and his agent.”
And UFC, apparently, is just “bullshitting” with Cain at the moment.
Everyone needs to ask the @ufc why @cainmma isn’t back. Let’s not beat around the bush anymore with this and let’s be honest, #UFC #HW division needs him but they bullshitting with this dude. @dc_mma won’t be around to keep saving their shows. https://t.co/KPZ5x5EMGo
— Josh Thomson (@THEREALPUNK) October 23, 2018
To hear “The Punk” tell it, Cain is what the 265-pound division needs at the moment. With Daniel Cormier set to retire, the weight class will be lacking big names, says Josh, to push it forward.
“I would say that, well there’s no secret that the heavyweight division now is not all that stacked. There aren’t a lot of guys at the very top of the division that have a chance of beating Cain. The only fighter the UFC’s really has that could give Cain any trouble is maybe Stipe (Miocic). That is the only heavyweight I could see giving Cain a hard go. There’s just not really anyone else. I mean (Fabricio) Werdum, I’m sure Cain Velasquez would like to get that fight back, but Werdum’s going to be on the sidelines for a long while now due to his sentence.”
Once considered to be the best big man in the business, Cain has only competed four times since 2013 due to injury and now apparent contract issues.
Cain’s return would be a welcome one for the promotion, but it seems the two sides can’t find neutral ground to make it happen.