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Velasquez (14-3) was on the cusp of UFC heavyweight title contention when Cormier joined him at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California, in 2009. Cormier saw Velasquez as the definition of a teammate and never wanted to fight him. After joining the UFC in 2013, Cormier decided to move down to light heavyweight after his sophomore outing in the promotion. “DC” recently revealed that Velasquez never saw him as a threat when he joined AKA. When Cormier started rising up the UFC rankings, he felt compelled to avoid Velasquez.
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‘He Uplifted Me’
“I went to AKA to train. I walked in as an Olympian and a heavyweight, and Cain Velasquez was the champion at the time,” Cormier told the UFC. “He never saw me as a potential opponent down the line, and because of that, when it was time, when I worked myself up to No. 2 in the world, I said, I’m gonna go to 205 pounds because he set the standard for what a teammate should be. And so I felt like I needed to go down to avoid [fighting him]. I didn’t want to fight him as a guy that was on the verge of a title fight. He uplifted me. And a lot of times, a leader can do that for someone, and it really does elevate them.”
Velasquez won the UFC heavyweight title against Brock Lesnar in 2010 but failed to defend it against Junior dos Santos. Velasquez reclaimed the title in a rematch against dos Santos in 2012 and defended it twice before losing it to Fabricio Werdum. After being sidelined with multiple injuries, Velasquez returned after a three-year hiatus in 2019 and retired following a loss against Francis Ngannou.
Meanwhile, Cormier (22-3) won the light heavyweight title in 2015 and defended it thrice before relinquishing it. Cormier also won the heavyweight title in 2018 and defended it against Derrick Lewis before losing to Stipe Miocic. Cormier retired following a trilogy loss against Miocic in 2020.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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