Cain Velasquez: New UFC Contract 'Had To Make Sense' In Order For Me to Fight Again

Cain Velasquez returns for the first time since July 2016 to headline the UFC's inaugural event on ESPN on Sunday, but according to the former champ, it came close to not happening.

Velasquez’s Ultimate Fighting Championship career has been decimated by variety of injuries; his last Octagon appearance was a first-round thrashing of Travis Browne at UFC 200, and he has fought only twice since 2013.

The 36-year-old is now back, claims to be fully fit, and is preparing to take on Francis Ngannou in the main event of UFC on ESPN 1. Velasquez spoke to reporters at a UFC Phoenix media day Tuesday about how close he was to giving the sport up entirely if his new contract didn’t meet his requirements (Transcript via MMA Fighting):

“I always thought about it,” Velasquez said. “Just me and my family, we’ve talked about it. My wife and I. Again, if it didn’t make sense, I’d be able to walk away and I would be OK with that. There is life after fighting. It’s all about that. I have kids now. It’s all about that longevity. It all had to make sense as well for me to come back.

“Again, it takes a lot out of me from a training aspect,” he added. “But I love it. I love what I do, I love to go out there and train. I love to train with high intensity. I’m so competitive. I’m so competitive in just my daily life, that’s just how I am. Even when I go in to train, I try to back off a little bit. It’s just the competitiveness in me. To go out there and to win, even in small things. It’s good and bad, but again when everything goes right then you get the best Cain out there.”