Cain Velasquez Awaiting MRI Results, Mexico City Bout With Werdum Will Have To Wait

When a report surfaced yesterday that UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez would next defend his belt against Fabricio Werdum in Mexico next April, it was definitely cause for excitement. After all, Mexico has long been targeted as a potentially huge market for mixed martial arts, and Velasquez would no doubt be the face of the UFC’s foray south of the border.

However, it looks that the report was more than a little bit premature. Speaking to Yahoo! Sports, UFC president Dana White dispelled the rumors and clarified the unfortunate situation that rests on Velasquez’ injured shoulder:

“We haven’t offered anyone a fight for that card and Cain is injured right now and might need surgery,” White said. “Obviously, we’re not going to Mexico without Cain Velasquez.”

Ouch. Velasquez has had trouble with his shoulder before, requiring surgery after his title-clinching win over Brock Lesnar in October 2010. He came back over a year later to face Junior dos Santos at UFC on Fox 1, suffering the only loss on his MMA record.

With the news of Velasquez’ injury, no timetable has been set for his immediate return. The news doesn’t sound too promising, however, as Velasquez’ manager Bob Cook spoke up to clarify the situation:

“He’s had one MRI already, but we’re going to get another one that is hopefully of better quality,” Cook said. “He hurt it during the fight, but we’re not exactly sure when or how it happened. Right now, we’re waiting to get this other MRI before we know what we have to do, whether there’s a need for minor surgery or just rehab.”

So the champ is awaiting results of another MRI on his shoulder to hold out hope of avoiding surgery. That’s not too promising of a sign – you can’t usually depend on a second medical opinion to tell you what you want to hear.

Apparently, Velasquez injured his shoulder in his third fight with dos Santos but wasn’t able to feel the pain during his one-sided win. His coach at AKA, Javier Mendez, went on about his hopes that the shoulder issue will just require rehab rather than surgery:

“It was one of those things where it had no impact on him in the fight, but after it’s over and the adrenaline isn’t going as much, you go, ‘Uh oh, I may have done something,’ ” Mendez said. “He never said a thing about it during the fight, but I was with him after just before we went to the press conference and he told me he thought he hurt his shoulder. Hopefully, it’s just something that will need rehab. I don’t think it’s major, but then Cain has such an amazingly high threshold for pain, you don’t know for sure. We just need to get it checked out properly and then we can proceed.”

Hopefully it is an injury that just requires rehab. Velasquez’ future bout with Werdum promises to be a good one, and the UFC’s first major event in Mexico has been a long time coming. Keep your eyes glued to LowKick for more news on the heavyweight champ as it arises.