Back At Work, Cain Velasquez Excited to Face Strikeforce Heavyweights

Velasquez walks away after finishing Lesnar at UFC 121.

UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez established himself as the top big man in the sport with his October 2010 destruction of then-champion Brock Lesnar. It was by far the biggest victory of Velasquez’s career, but also the most costly.

Velasquez tore his labrum in the fight, putting him and his shiny new belt on the sidelines.

He underwent surgery in early January, but is just now working on getting back into training. It will still be some time before he can fight. Velasquez needs to rebuild the strength in his shoulder before he can just jump back in training and expect to take a fight.

A likely timeline would put him back in the Octagon sometime in the fall, perhaps as the headliner for a major pay-per-view event on Oct. 8 in Houston.

“I think we were talking about (Velasquez returning) in October,” UFC president Dana White said recently in Toronto.

Asked if Velasquez might headline against either Junior dos Santos or Brock Lesnar in Houston, White replied, ““Probably. Sounds like that would make a lot of sense.”

Currently coaching on “The Ultimate Fighter,” dos Santos and Lesnar will square off at UFC 131 in Vancouver to become the number one contender for Velasquez’s title.

Velasquez was part of the “Super 7” question and answer session prior to the UFC 129 weigh-ins in Toronto. He addressed his injury, but also went on to discuss the likelihood of matching up against Strikeforce’s stable of heavyweights, and how he feels about possibly having to rematch Lesnar immediately after defeating him for the belt…