Velasquez: Cormier Admitted He Did Not Want Lesnar

Cain Velasquez says Daniel Cormier once told him privately that he had no wish to fight Brock Lesnar. The admission, Velasquez said, came around the time of his own 2010 heavyweight title fight with Lesnar.

Velasquez spoke about it on The Shawn Ryan Show. His coaches believed they had a plan to beat the champion, he said, while Cormier looked at the same opponent and drew another conclusion. "He's a freak of an athlete," Velasquez said. "My coaches and I knew that we had the recipe, but I could see everyone else."

He then recalled Cormier's words: "Man, when you fought him, I didn't tell you, but I was just like, I don't want to be fighting that guy."

This is Velasquez describing a private conversation. It is not Cormier announcing that he turned down a fight. The comment concerns Lesnar during Velasquez's title challenge, not the Cormier matchup that emerged eight years later.

Why Lesnar made people nervous

Velasquez pointed to Lesnar's wrestling background, size and power. "He was pure muscle, that's not me," he said. "Then standing in front of him, this is a massive dude right here." Getting hit was the concern. "Even though he doesn't like the exchange, he has power. So you get hit with that, it's not going to be good. You've still got to be cautious everywhere."

Velasquez gave up more than 20 pounds to the 265-pound champion at UFC 121 in Anaheim on October 23, 2010. He survived the opening attack, turned the fight around and finished Lesnar with strikes at 4:12 of the first round to take the title.

The fight that never happened

On July 7, 2018, Cormier did the calling out. He knocked out Stipe Miocic at UFC 226 to become heavyweight champion while holding the light heavyweight belt, then invited Lesnar into the Octagon. Lesnar shoved him. "Push me now, [and] you're going to sleep later," Cormier shouted. Dana White said afterward that he wanted Lesnar to challenge for the title.

Cormier has said money got in the way. In a Q&A, he recalled a call from Lesnar while he was at his daughter's gymnastics event. Lesnar's pitch, according to Cormier: beat Miocic and the two could cash in together. "You knock him out, it's going to be Christmas early for your family because we're going to fight," Cormier recalled Lesnar saying.

"It didn't happen because the WWE gave him too much money, and he made the right choice," Cormier said. "He's done really well for himself. I'm proud of him."

On April 30, 2019, White said Lesnar had told him he was finished with MMA. "He's done, he's retired," White said. The UFC moved toward a Cormier-Miocic rematch instead.

On Club Shay Shay with Shannon Sharpe, Cormier called Lesnar "my golden goose." He described the fight as "one of the safest fights I could have had. It's just the truth." His reasoning was wrestling and conditioning. "If he shoots on me, I'm going to make it so hard for him to get that takedown that by the time he gets it, he's exhausted," he said.

Source: LowKickMMA.com