Daniel Cormier gives insight into how Cain Velasquez is handling looming ‘Attempted Murder’ sentencing

UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier weighed in on the upcoming sentencing of Cain Velasquez in the former UFC heavyweight champ’s attempted murder trial.

Velasquez pleaded no contest to attempted murder, and weapons charges, stemming from a Feb. 2022 incident. He allegedly attempted to murder the alleged child molester of his young son, Harry Goularte, in a high-speed pursuit in the San Jose, CA area.

Goularte’s stepfather Paul Bender was injured in the incident. Velasquez was granted bail in Oct. 2022 but continues to serve a conditional house arrest.

Cormier and Velasquez are close friends and former training partners, stemming from their careers at American Kickboxing Academy. Cormier and Velasquez speak often, and Cormier has revealed how Velasquez is processing the potential prison sentence.

Daniel Cormier: Cain Velasquez was alone 23 hours a day in jail

In a recent Pound 4 Pound podcast appearance, Cormier spoke about Velasquez’s potential final weeks of freedom before a possible jail sentence.

“Now, he’s ready to stand up and take his consequence,” Cormier said of Velasquez. “He went to jail for a while, it was the saddest thing. I would go [to jail], sit with him, and the things we spoke about. It was so crazy because to me, he was the reason I knew I could be a world champ. Because out of our gym, he made it possible to dream that big. Watching the way he worked, watching how committed he was to becoming the best in the world. I knew that I could be the best…

“Then I sat there, you go to jail, and there’s this glass thing in between you and the person you get on the phone [with]…we’d have these great conversations…he was spending so much time by himself, 23 hours a day by himself, because of the confinement they had,” Cormier continued. “The celebrity aspect of it, they didn’t want to put him in general population, so he had to stay by himself all the time. The best thing about his situation, is when you’re out on house arrest, you get your time served that you’re actually out, but you get additional [time credited] for doing things the right way…he doesn’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re all pretty sure there’s going to be some sort of jail time. We hope it won’t be a lot, because he’s been doing the right things since he got out.”

Velasquez is regarded by many as one of the greatest heavyweights in UFC history. He’ll appear in Santa Clara County District Court on October 18th for sentencing.