Cain: Maybe two weeks training at altitude wasn’t enough
Cain Velasquez: “Maybe that wasn’t enough. Again, no excuses. Fabricio was the better guy tonight. He fought with great technique. Very relaxed.”
New UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum spent over a month training at high altitude. At the post-fight press conference, former champion Cain Velasquez conceded that coming to Mexico City with its elevation of 7,382 just two weeks before the fight may have been a mistake.
“Maybe that wasn’t enough,” said Velasquez as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMAFighting.com. “Again, no excuses. Fabricio was the better guy tonight. He fought with great technique. Very relaxed.”
“We didn’t not want to go to the ground with him. We knew that if we fought everywhere we’d have to do that. We’re not one-sided anymore. We go to the ground and we fight there. I was ready to do that. Going in for a double leg, he caught my neck. I had my head way on the outside. That was my fault. Again, you live and you learn.”
“He didn’t surprise me. I’ve seen his film before. I know how he fights; he fights very good. Tonight he fought very good. He won tonight.”
“It felt the same way definitely with the fight against dos Santos. Same kind of feelings. The plan is always to come back to training and get better. That’s what we have to do. Keep that hunger. That’s the plan.”