White blames ‘Stone Age’ AKA for Velasquez’s constant injuries
Dana White: “AKA is one of those places. You’ve got Cain Velasquez, our heavyweight champion, who’s always hurt. Those guys go to war every day.”
Cain Velasquez captured the heavyweight title in May of 2012, and has since defending it three times, averaging one fight per year. UFC President Dana White believes that part of the problem is that his training camp is not managing how their fighter’s train properly:
“Some of the camps are still in the stone ages and need to be brought up to date,” White said. “AKA is one of those places. You’ve got Cain Velasquez, our heavyweight champion, who’s always hurt. Those guys go to war every day.”
Velasquez hasn’t competed since scoring a TKO victory over former champion Junior dos Santos at UFC 166 in October 2013.
The champ was meant to star in the promotion’s debut event in Mexico at UFC 180, but was forced to withdraw less than a month before fight night due to a torn MCL and meniscus suffered in training.
Prior to Velasquez being re-booked to face interim champion Fabrício Werdum June 13 at UFC 188, White set a deadline stating that if the champion was unfit to fight by March 2015 he could have been stripped of his title.
“He’s training for a fight and he’s going to war with Daniel Cormier every day,” said White. “That’s not how it’s done. Not anymore. We need to educate a lot more.”