Kane Velasquez was a very popular UFC heavyweight champion 5 years ago. They made memes about him, but he only had one fight in the last five years. He just had a second fight. And if there will be another is a big question. Against Francis Ngannou, Kane lasted 28 seconds.
A favourite for his former glory
Velasquez was the favourite. Despite injuries and being out for a while, he was still one of the favourites. He had his own problems with injuries but that didn’t stop him from coming back and showing that he could still fight. His opponent is Cameroonian Francis Ngannou. Ngannou is very scary because he does lots of knockouts. But Velasquez has some power too – it just hasn’t gone anywhere!
Velasquez could have beaten Nganna in the second half of the fight. But Velasquez needed to stand in the first round so that he would not get knocked out by Ngannou. Unless he was able to stay on his feet, then he would be at risk of getting hit by a strong blow from Ngannou.
When you don’t fight for a long time, it is hard to go up against an elite fighter. But Velasquez was thrown at Nganga. Kane himself wanted this fight, but practice shows that it’s almost impossible to come back and win like that. Especially when you are 36 years old.
The fight
If you want to talk about the fight, it only lasted for a little more than 30 seconds. Velasquez came into the octagon as if he had not been out of work for 30 months. His opponent was not one of the worst knockout. Kane is never afraid of anyone, and that’s probably why he is considered one of the best ever. In the first seconds, he tried to kick but could only hit on defense.
Twenty seconds into the fight, Velasquez attempted a touchdown, made a pass to his feet, but failed to drop Nganna. The Cameroonian, as far as he could see from the back, hit a straight left to Kane’s head, then pushed him off somehow awkwardly. Velasquez began to roll backwards and sat down extremely unfortunate that his legs were at an unnatural angle. Already in pain, Kane tried to regroup, found himself on the decking and missed several more finishing blows from Ngannou. The referee promptly intervened and the fight was over.
The Cameroonian did not even know he was winning. He only wanted to fight against someone like Velasquez. He wanted to be the best fighter and he is happy with his win.
Summary of the fight
I lost the fight to my opponent. I apologized to the crowd for it and encouraged everyone that our sport is really great because you never know how things will turn out. I want to continue my career and have more fights in the future.
Will Kane continue his career? He should. Kane says he wants to keep fighting, and that’s good enough for me. He trains with the best fighters in the business, and if he goes into the octagon, then he’s ready for that too.
Everybody makes mistakes. But a 36-year-old is not the right age to be a heavyweight boxer. It’s only middle-career for him, if he has fought 17 fights in 13 years. The important thing is his health, so he can fight again. From what I see, Velasquez is doing well and could be back as the top fighter if he doesn’t get thrown under the tank by any other fighters when he comes back from being out of work for too long.
