By Kelsey Mowatt Heading into last night’s heavyweight championship bout at UFC 121, many MMA observers understood that Cain Velasquez would have to weather the massive storm of Brock Lesnar early on, if he was to unseat the reigning champ. Velasquez managed to do just that, however, and after quickly demonstrating that his own wrestling abilities could counter those of Lesnar’s, the fight soon turned in his favour.
“You know I felt great about the fight; we knew what the game plan was going in, and it kind of surprised me how hard he did go forward in the beginning,” Velasquez said at last night’s post fight press conference. “I kind of froze a little bit. I wasn’t as relaxed as I should have been, but I think after that takedown he got on me, I got up, and that’s when I was like, okay, relax, relax, relax.”
“We worked extremely hard on this you know. Me and Daniel Cormier, who is a great, great, wrestling coach, great training partner...”
Similar to Lesnar’s memorable bout with Shane Carwin in July, the renowned wrestler faired poorly in the stand-up game, and Velasquez quickly overwhelmed the champion with strikes. While Lesnar looked for a way out from his back, unlike UFC 116, this time, there would be no comeback. The bout was stopped at 4:12 of the first round, handing Velasquez his ninth win in as many fights, and more importantly, the UFC heavyweight crown.
“We just had to pick our shots; I knew the ref wasn’t going to stop it that early,” Velasquez noted, whose barrage of strikes left Lesnar bruised and bloodied. “So we had to pick our shots; I wasn’t just going to go crazy and just start throwing punches if he was on the bottom, but he was covering up well; I wanted some punches to connect, some elbows to get in there, so I just took my time and really, really, thought about where I should throw the punches and where I should get my elbows in.”
