Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez has opened up about his infamous Crown Jewel bout with Brock Lesnar and apologised to those that felt let down.
Velasquez and Lesnar have a storied history that dates back to the two men’s time together in UFC. Cain Velasquez won the first of his two UFC Heavyweight Titles by defeating The Beast Incarnate inside the octagon in October 2010.
Almost a decade later, the rivalry was reignited on the first episode of SmackDown on FOX. After Brock Lesnar shockingly defeated Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship in seconds, Lesnar was confronted by a ghost from his past in the form of Cain Velasquez.
That confrontation led to a match between the two men for Lesnar’s WWE Championship at Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia on the 31st of October, 2019. Lesnar won that match and afterwards attacked Velasquez with a steel chair.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Velasquez described his thoughts on the bout with Lesnar and felt the two warriors could have done a lot more:
“It is what it is. That was just me going into it and trying to figure out what it was. It was all thrown at me at once, a new organization. I was there for whatever anybody needed to have me build into whatever they wanted to build into. That didn’t happen on this turn, I’m sorry to everyone that got let down.”
“That hurt me as well because I expect a lot out of myself. I expect more for myself. They wanted me to stay in the MMA zone and have that rivalry with Brock, but they weren’t really willing to put the time in to have us work together to totally do that, they wanted us to do that.”
Cain Velasquez then touched on his dealings with Brock Lesnar and says The Beast fans see on TV is pretty much Lesnar behind the scenes:
“We didn’t work much, but talking to him for a little bit, I just know where he comes from, just from that little time spent. Very little. I know what he’s about and I respect him for that. What you see when he performs, that’s him. That persona when he’s out there, that’s him. That’s his true self. Close quarters, he’s obviously more human, but that’s him. I saw that. That’s his whole being and talking to him, I could see it.”
Cain Velasquez was released from his WWE contract in the spring of 2020 as the company began budget cuts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.