“I was looking at an October fight too – that’s what I wanted to do. I got a call from Dana and he says he wants me to fight [Fabricio] Werdum again and I said, ‘I’m happy to do that.’ He knows that I wanted to fight in October and he was wondering if I wanted to do that and if I didn’t want to wait and I was like, ‘No man – I want to wait for that fight; that’s the fight that I want.’… As far as being more active, yeah, I’d like to be more active. As far as injuries, yeah, I would like to not have any injuries at all – I would love that too. As far as that stuff and the future, no, I don’t (think about it at all). I just take my stuff day-by-day and as far as what my legacy is later, obviously that’s for the people to decide. The only thing I can do is give it my all when I go out there and fight and that’s pretty much it.”
-Cain Velasquez discusses wanting to be more active than he’s been during a Q&A prior to UFC 192 (via UFC.com)
Penick’s Analysis: It would be great if Velasquez could stay healthy enough to fight more than once a year. But here’s another example of why this immediate rematch with Werdum is nonsensical: if Velasquez was ready to fight by this month, why hold him out until March? Why not have him fight someone else in October? He didn’t look particularly good against Werdum, and got beat decisively. It may have been beneficial for him to try getting back on track as soon as possible. Obviously he chose to wait for the Werdum fight because the opportunity was there, but if they hadn’t presented that as the next fight he would have fought again. Holding up the division as they have has really hurt the field as a whole.
[Cain Velasquez art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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