Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez discovered an unusual medicine that helped him heal from recent personal “trauma”: Psychedelics.
Velasquez (14-3) had a very difficult 2019. In February of that year, he made his long-awaited return to the Octagon after two and half years away. However, the two-time division king was welcomed back to the cage by Francis Ngannou and quickly sent back home by way of a 26-second knockout. Later that year, both his brother and mother passed away over a two-month period.
The combination of his fight career harshly coming to a close and losing two major figures in his life left him with a great deal of emotional turmoil that was left unresolved. That is until earlier year when he decided to dabble in psychedelics for the first time with some family members, and they used the powerful plant-based hallucinogen ayahuasca.
Cain Velasquez explains how taking psychedelics helped heal his internal trauma
I didn’t know what I was looking for, or if I was looking for anything, but I really just focused on my brother, my mom. The only thing that lasted between us was love, between me and my mom and me and my brother. We just love each other. That’s always been there, and that’s the strongest emotion. … I lost my brother in the way that we lost him, but that love that was still there, is still there, and that was all that mattered. That made me heal so much, Velasquez told “>The MMA Hour.
I really didn’t know how much I had with me, or what I was carrying around until I really let this medicine work with me on the things that aren’t serving me a purpose. I got rid of a lot of the trauma, just from the sh*t that we live through every day that society puts on you, but we don’t even know what we’re carrying around until we sit down and face the root of the problem.
During his appearance on the MMAFighting podcast, the 39-year-old revealed that he has dabbled in psychedelics on four occasions, and has tried the toad venom derived product known as 5-MeO-DMT.
Psychedelics are not an uncommon topic in MMA circles. Long-time UFC announcer Joe Rogan has been a supporter of DMT drugs, and in March MMAFighting spoke with several retired fighters who confirmed the use of psychedelics have been hugely beneficial in their physical and mental recovery after years competing in the sports grinder that is MMA.
Velasquez says counting ‘little victories’ have helped filled the void left from fighting
Velasquez explained in the interview his own difficulties in dealing with life after being a star athlete, and that finding “little victories” in his day-to-day life has become an extremely useful substitute for the void left by from being an active competitor in the UFC.
People that do this [sport] are a select, certain amount of people. That warrior is in them. And when the music stops, and you can’t be a warrior like you could be anymore, it’s hard. It’s hard, because you still have that fire inside, and it’s not a normal fire like everyone else. It burns much hotter. So you need an outlet that is much more, that you can learn from,” said Velasquez.
It takes a mental rejuvenation to know that when I was fighting, those big wins did so much for me. But there are wins in the gym. There are wins in sparring. There are wins in a certain position. So what I learned is those little victories in here translate to little victories out there. And what is that? You with your kids, you with your family, that’s little victories when you’re out and putting gas in and have a connection with someone. … Getting those little victories every day is what makes it. Not those big ones, because we only get a few of those, here and there. But those little ones add up.
Does the former UFC heavyweight champion’s use of psychedelics make you now look differently at this particular hallucinogenic drug?
