UFC’s new heavyweight champ lives up to potential
Velasquez: Dominating Lesnar “a sweet feeling”
ANAHEIM, Calif. – The UFC’s new heavyweight champion is a soft-spoken former Arizona State wrestler who dotes on his daughter even during training. Until Saturday night, Cain Velasquez’s life was strictly about family and fighting.
He knows it’s going to get a bit more complicated after he demolished the most famous man in mixed martial arts.
Velasquez won more than a gaudy belt with his stunning first-round stoppage of Brock Lesnar at UFC 121. The San Jose, Calif.-based fighter has been among the sport’s top prospects for several years, and he realized his potential in a frighteningly lopsided victory that ended with Lesnar defenseless against his power.
Only when referee Herb Dean halted the fight did Velasquez crack his expressionless persona of the past several weeks – walking to the middle of the ring, raising his arms in triumph and then putting his hands over his face in disbelief, his Mexican-flag mouthpiece revealed by his first public smile in a while.
“It was a sweet feeling,” Velasquez said. “All the work I put in was for that moment. I pictured it playing out that way. It was the best ending I could think of, as far as the whole story, but I’ve got to keep getting better and look out for whoever is coming.”
With a rigid work ethic instilled in him by immigrant parents, Velasquez is unlikely to get comfortable after becoming the first major Mexican-American heavyweight champion in MMA or boxing. He’s already making plans for his first defense early next year against Brazil’s Junior Dos Santos, the next rising prospect in a division packed with intriguing fighters.
Velasquez’s ascension ended the reign of Lesnar, who won the belt in just his fourth MMA fight in November 2008, less than three years after picking up the sport and abandoning his attempt to play in the NFL. Velasquez showed just how rudimentary Lesnar’s MMA skills are.
“When he starts getting hit is when his hands start to fall apart,” UFC president Dana White said. “It’s not a matter of working on his hands enough. It’s a different ballgame when you’re getting punched in the face.”