Over the last few years, the UFC has suffered a string of injuries to their main event fighters. During a particularly bad stretch in 2014, it seemed as if every other pay-per-view was losing its main event to injury.
UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez is one of the higher-profile fighters to be bitten by the injury bug with stunning regularity over the years. The American Kickboxing Academy product won the heavyweight title for a second time at UFC 155 in 2012, when he avenged a prior loss (his only defeat) to Junior dos Santos. Since winning the belt, he has defended it twice; a fight with Brazilian Antonio Silva at UFC 160 and a rematch with dos Santos at UFC 166 – both of which happened in 2013.
Velasquez hasn’t been heard from since. An interim title was put into effect, currently held by Fabricio Werdum, and the two are expected to meet at UFC 188 in June. That is, if, of course, Velasquez can stay healthy.
UFC president Dana White is growing tired of the card changes. It’s understandable, given the amount of promotion and man-hours it takes to pull off a UFC pay-per-view. A lost main event can cost the UFC millions – on top of having consumer confidence take a hit each time a fan’s favorite fighter pulls out of his (or her) bout.
In a recent interview with Setanta Sports, White gave his thoughts on just why, exactly, he thinks that these injuries are happening – specifically injuries to UFC heavyweight champ Velasquez.
"Some of the camps are still in the stone ages and need to be brought up to date," White said. "AKA is one of those places; you've got Cain Velasquez, our heavyweight champion, who's always hurt. Those guys go to war every day."
"He's training for a fight and he's going to war with Daniel Cormier every day. That's not how it's done. Not anymore. We need to educate a lot more."
AKA is a gym that carries a reputation for having some of the most intense sparring battles in the sport – most liken them to a full-on championship fight. So, it’s understandable that White may be a little upset that his valuable commodities are getting in such heated training sessions.
At UFC 180 in November of last year, Velasquez was set to defend his heavyweight title against challenger Fabricio Werdum in Mexico City. The fight had an immense amount of hype behind it and with Mexican-American Velasquez headlining, the Arena Ciudad de Mexico sold out its 21,000 seats posthaste – eight hours to be exact.
Velasquez was injured (reports were that he injured his knee in training), and heavyweight slugger Mark Hunt filled his spot, while the interim title was put into play. The Mexican crowd was fired up for the UFC’s debut in their country, yes, but it was just that – a debut. The UFC had a grace period with it being the company’s first show, and going forward, they can hardly expect the same turnout if their main event champions keep dropping like flies.
"We're working on how to try to fix things like that," said White. "Obviously educating the fighters on training better, training safer. We're building a new headquarters in Las Vegas. We break ground in June [2015] and it will be done the following June in 2016. We're building a huge facility for rehab and therapy.
"Normally what we would do is say, 'You blew your ACL out. We're going to send you to the best surgeon in the country and then come back and let us know when you're ready.' No [major sports franchise] does that.
"Now we're going to take the guys in and when they have surgery, they're going to be there in our facility with the best therapists recovering. We're going to watch over them and we're going to continue to educate these guys on how to train safer. We're going to try to fix the things you normally can't control. We're going to try to control the uncontrollable."
(Skip to 5:30 mark for White's comments on injuries in the UFC)
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