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Wednesday, Dec 28, 2016

UFC 207: Cain Velasquez Releases Statement Following Removal From Card

Cain Velasquez (photo via UFC.com)

By FCF Staff

Following the Nevada Commission’s decision to pull Cain Velasquez from UFC 207, the former heavyweight champ has commented on the situation in a lengthy statement.

Recently Velasquez disclosed in an interview that he will undergo back surgery in early 2017. Since then the Nevada Commission has deemed that Velasquez is “unfit” to fight Fabricio Werdum, as was scheduled.

Here is some of what Velasquez had to say in his statement, which he posted on Facebook:

To all of my fans, family and friends,

As you can imagine the last few days have been very challenging. However, throughout my career I have always been transparent with you in every way and this won’t be the exception.

First let me say no one is more disappointed about not fighting at UFC 207 than I. Fighting is what I love to do. Unfortunately, circumstances out of my control are forcing me from doing so. I wanted all of you to know the facts surrounding what is keeping me out of the Octagon.

• On December 21st, I gave an interview to ESPN staff writer Brett Okamoto in which I indicated that I had been having some back issues related to my sciatic nerve and the pain it was causing me. I also indicated how I was treating it with a Cannabidiol oral spray which helped with the pain and in combination with cortisone shots allowed me to train at 100% without risk of structural damage to my back. This injury and pain are due to bone spurs, and it is what I had surgery for earlier this year. The pain simply came back due to the nature of regular MMA training and I’ll be having surgery again on January 4th. However, the pain was not going to deter me from fighting as my doctor assured me there would be no further structural damage to my back as a result of my competing at UFC 207.
• The interview alerted the Nevada State Athletic Commission and they contacted me on December 22nd requesting my x-rays. We promptly provided them even though my doctor indicated that the requested x-rays would not show evidence of injury.
• On December 23rd the NSAC requested I have another full physical with my personal doctor as well as an emergency conference call with my doctor, the NSAC, and myself on Christmas Eve. My doctor was kind enough to leave his family and flew to San Francisco for this physical and call.
• On December 24th, a conference call was held during which my doctor indicated to the NSAC that my previous CT scans, MRIs and x-rays were all indicative of me being able to fight without the expectation of further injury. At this point the NSAC requested all of these test results and we obviously agreed to comply.
• Within about 10 minutes of the conference call, I casually opened Twitter and read that I had been pulled from UFC 207 even though the NSAC had not had the chance to review the test results I mentioned above.
• Approximately one hour later I received a call from the NSAC and they confirmed that they were revoking my license to fight and apologized for the news having leaked before they had a chance to let me know…

 

 

 

posted by FCF Staff @ 6:47 pm
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