Cain Velasquez: If I’m 100% Going Into a Fight, There’s Nobody That Can Touch Me

This weekend, in the main event of UFC 203, UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic will attempt to defend his title against decorated challenger Alistair Overeem. Given the perennial popularity of the heavyweight division, this championship bout has the MMA community pretty excited. There is perhaps nobody more excited for this bout, however, than former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez. After all, he’s likely to fight the winner.

Of course, this isn’t to suggest that Velasquez cares who wins UFC 203’s main event.

“I don’t really care who wins,” Velasquez told Ariel Helwani on this week’s episode of The MMA Hour. “I want the best guy to win, and I want to fight that guy.”

And just who is the “best guy,” according to Velasquez? Well, he’s not sure.

“Overeem is a great stand-up guy who would want to keep the fight on the feet. Stipe is more similar to my style where he does everything really well… he’s conditioned, he’s a smaller heavyweight. 

Whoever emerges victorious this Saturday, though, Velasquez is confident he can beat them.

“I feel like both guys pose threats in their own rights, and I feel like with my style of fight I can beat both guys.”

In fact, Velasquez thinks most of the MMA community would favor him over both Miocic and Overeem.

“People know that, if I’m 100% going into a fight, there’s nobody out there that can touch me,” he told Helwani. 

Staying at 100%, of course, has been a real problem throughout Velasquez’s career, as he’s been sidelined by serious injuries on several occasions. As his career continues to progress, however, Velasquez says he learning to train in such a way that the risk of injuries is reduced.

“I feel like now, with how much experience I have, I know what to do as far as keeping my body at its optimum level,” the former champ told Helwani. ” That’s not over-training it, always doing massages. That’s all work for your body, to keep it maintained, and I feel like it’s helping. You saw [the results] in my last fight [against Travis Browne].

“Our bodies are race cars,” Velasquez continued. “They always need maintenance; tires, wheels, little tweaks here and there, every day. I wasn’t doing that maintenance before, and now I am. Now I know my body, and I know how to make it work at its optimum level.

So, do you think Cain Velasquez can defeat the winner of Miocic and Overeem’s UFC 203 title bout? More importantly, do you think he can keep himself healthy from now on? Sound off, PENN nation!