Daniel Cormier Guarantees He’ll Beat Francis Ngannou After Cain Velasquez Knockout
Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez’s MMA return in the main event of last night’s (Sun., February 17, 2019) UFC on ESPN 1 from Phoenix, Arizona, was foiled by a brutal knockout loss to Francis Ngannou (watch it here) at just 26 seconds of the opening frame.
There was some significant doubt over the loss because of Velasquez seemingly suffering a serious knee injury. Ngannou landed some wild shots early, but upon further review, Velasquez’ knee buckled. The heavyweight great fell to the mat in pain from his knee. ‘The Predator’ did rock him with a short uppercut in close. Some follow-up punches on a debilitated Velasquez closed the fight down.
After the disappointing return, Velasquez’ longtime teammate and close friend Daniel Cormier spoke about the loss to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani. A dejected Cormier expressed his disappointment at how it played out:
“Just very disappointed. You know, I know how hard he trained. I know how well he prepared for this fight. And for it to end how it did was very unfortunate, was very hard to watch. I wasn’t able to get to Phoenix and it’s sad. It makes me very sad that I’m not there right now and that he lost in this way.”
A Great Camp
Asked if there were any signs in camp, Cormier affirmed there were not. He thought Velasquez was ready to begin a new ascent toward the heavyweight title:
“Nah man, I thought that he looked good. He was ready to fight. I just got a call from Cain right there a second ago. I’m gonna call him back after we’re done here. But he looked good, I thought he was ready to fight and I felt like he was ready to win this fight. You just can’t control some of these things that happen. You know, he blew, he hurt his knee. And also you’re fighting a big, powerful guy like Francis. There’s no room for error.”
‘DC’s Guarantee
Cormier has sad he would fight once more, presumably against Brock Lesnar, and retire. Now that Velasquez lost to Ngannou, however, th clear revenge fight could be versus ‘The Predator.’ You could argue Ngannou is the far tougher bout at this point. Yet when the inevitable question came up, Cormier said the hulking slugger hadn’t called him out yet. If he did, the heavyweight champ guaranteed he’d beat the French-Cameroonian specimen:
“You know, every time you see like that the emotions tell
