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When Cain Velasquez revealed his plans to retire from mixed martial arts (MMA) to pursue a career in WWE, he explained that his old boss, Dana White, gave him his blessing to do so. Cain was still under contract with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), but White was cool with Cain leaving fights on the table.
Though that probably wouldn’t have been the case had Velasquez been moving to a rival promotion.
Indeed, White has no ill will toward his former Heavyweight champion, saying that what he’s seen from him in the ring, proves that he could have a great career.
“I was always like how is Cain going to wrestle? He’s having problems with his body in MMA and then I saw him doing the [lucha libre] wrestling whatever they call it with the mask on and I was like god*amn he’s pretty good. That’s cool,” Dana told MMA Fighting.
In what has proven to be a healthy friendship and partnership between the biggest MMA promotion in the world, as well as the biggest pro wrestling company, White talks about how the move went down.
“When I got the call, I got a call from WWE—I knew what they were thinking,” White said. “I was totally cool with it from the minute they called me and didn’t even ask me, they were looking for Cain because I figured that’s what they were going to do because it completely makes sense.”
Of course, Cain is not the first — and probably not the last — pro MMA fighter to make the switch to WWE. More recently, former UFC women’s Bantamweight champion and company poster girl, Ronda Rousey, gave up her MMA career to cross over to wrestling.
Immediately, WWE pushed Ronda, winning the title very early on as well as becoming one of three women to headline a Wrestlemania event for the first time ever. And just like Rousey had success and made bank with WWE before stepping away to start a family, White says he hopes Cain hits it big, as well.
“I’m happy for him. I’m happy for his family. I hope he does well like Ronda [Rousey] did and makes a lot of money and I hope the fans over there love him.”
Cain’s official WWE debut will go down on October 31, 2019 when he faces Brock Lesnar at the promotion’s upcoming “Crown Jewel” event Saudi Arabia.