UFC Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier Considers Avenging His Teammate Cain Velasquez’s Loss To Francis Ngannou
A pound-for-pound great Daniel Cormier’s teammate Cain Velasquez returned to Octagon after a two-and-a-half-year of inactivity last night (Feb. 17, 2019) in the main headliner of UFC On ESPN 1 from Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix against former UFC title contender Francis Ngannou. Unfortunately, things didn’t go well for Velasquez who suffered a KO loss in just 26 seconds into the first round.
It was such a devastating end for Velasquez who considers one of the greatest heavyweight fighters of all time.
The 36-year-old Velasquez is whom ‘DC” has long credited with helping him emerging so quickly from an amateur wrestler to an MMA fighter and winning the Strikeforce World Grand Prix heavyweight while training together at American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) in San Jose. To respect that Cormier dropped down to 205-pound class back in 2013 while Cain was still the heavyweight champion to avoid clashing each other.
Cains’ loss left Cormier disappointed. (h/t MMAFighting)
“Every time you see something like that, the emotions tell you, you go get it back, you go make it right,” an emotional Cormier said Sunday night on ESPN’s SportsCenter. “But Francis Ngannou, who didn’t ask for a fight, maybe later he will, and if that’s something we decide we want to do, then that’s what I’ll do.
Cain’s shining career plagued by injuries but ‘DC’ said he was healthy leading up to his fight against ‘The Predator’ on Sunday night.
“He looked good,” Cormier said. “I thought he was ready to fight, and I felt like he was ready to win this fight. You just cannot control some of the things that happen. He hurt his knee. And obviously you’re fighting a big powerful guy like Francis, there’s no room for error.”
“Just very disappointed, I know how hard he trained,” DC said. “I know how well he prepared for this fight, and for it to end the way that it did was very unfortunate, was very hard to watch, I wasn’t able to get to Phoenix. It’s sad, it makes me very sad that I’m not there right now, that he lost in this way.”
In a UFC Phoenix post-fight press conference, Velasquez said knee injury cost him a fight and disputed the notion that an uppercut punch from Ngannou caused the finish.
Ngannou (13-3) is riding on a two-fight winning streak after a pair of lackluster performances, didn’t call out anyone but at the post-fight presser ‘Predator’ said he wanted a title fight and hope ‘DC’ would come and avenge his friend’s loss.
“I think he should come to avenge his teammate,” Ngannou said. “I think that would be a good matchup. I’ll get that done as well.”
Cormier’s next fight is not confirmed yet; however, he’s expected to take on WWE star Brock Lesnar next. Currently, ‘DC’ is healing up his injured back but in the wake of Cain’s loss, a UFC heavyweight champion desire’s to fight Ngannou and vows to beat him if this fight presented.
“I won’t go fight Francis Ngannou,” Cormier emphasized. “I will beat Francis Ngannou.”
How many of you want to see Cormier take on Ngannou next?
