UFC champion Cain Velasquez worries about rust, opens new gym

Cain Velasquez just moved into a new house in the Bay Area, and he’s busy planning his wedding. His team is opening a spacious new gym in San Jose, Calif., this weekend.

It’s almost enough to keep the UFC heavyweight champion’s mind off all the training time he’s losing in his long rehabilitation from rotator cuff surgery.

“I think I’m just getting rusty a little bit,” Velasquez told The Associated Press. “I know that once I get back, I’m going to have some catching up to do. I think this is a perfect moment for me to be in this situation, with the wedding and the house, but it’s definitely hard.”

Velasquez hurt himself while pounding Brock Lesnar to win his belt last October, and the unbeaten champion hasn’t really been able to work since. He just got his arm out of a sling two weeks ago, and he’s still a few weeks away from returning to workouts.

Velasquez and trainer Javier Mendez both seem fairly certain he’ll be ready to make his first defense in the fall, when he’s expected to face the winner of Lesnar’s June meeting with Junior Dos Santos in Vancouver.

They also acknowledge they’re facing a rough training camp at American Kickboxing Academy’s new gym if they hope to keep his belt.

“We’re not in a good situation, based on how much work he has to do to catch up,” Mendez said. “Those rotator cuff injuries, they’re not something to play with, and he’s not able to train. He’s definitely going to be rusty. The good thing is he’s been kept busy by the wedding and all the personal appearances you have to do as the champ, so it’s kept his mind occupied.”

Velasquez and Michelle Borquez are getting married May 28, and the couple just moved into a new house in Morgan Hill, a Silicon Valley suburb. He’s also crossing the globe for personal appearances and endorsement deals, spreading the gospel of mixed martial arts even when he can’t participate.

Velasquez has managed to do a bit of cardiovascular work and even spinning classes during his downtime, but it’s mostly spent waiting.

For a fighter who has been in almost nonstop motion since before his wrestling career at Arizona State, it’s a tough transition.

“He comes in the gym whenever he can, but he can’t do much,” Mendez said. “I’m not worried about his focus. I’m worried about the catching up we have to do to get him in the best possible shape. I’d like to say he’d be better than ever in the fall, but it’s going to be a very good Cain Velasquez, but not the best Cain Velasquez, because there’s going to be some ring rust. I still don’t believe anybody is going to beat this kid.”

Velasquez has made adjustments to his daily schedule and to his diet, which had to change almost immediately. Although he isn’t as big as the hulking Lesnar, his athletic frame still doesn’t know how to react to inactivity.

“At first I was eating the way I was when I was fighting, and that wasn’t good,” Velasquez said. “Now I try to eat less meals during the day, or more meals but less amount of food.”

Mendez is keeping his original, spartan AKA gym in a strip mall next to a fabric store elsewhere in San Jose, but his new gym is a 27,000-square- foot monument to martial arts.

He’s a partner with Spectrum Health Center’s Manny Camara, who treats several prominent AKA fighters, to build a candy store of a facility with everything from rudimentary wrestling mats and heavy bags to a hyperbaric chamber and X-ray machines.