Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez has issued his first statement since being released from prison last month.
Velasquez, 43, pleaded no contest to attempted murder charges last year, stemming from a February 2022 incident which saw the retired fighter embark on a freeway chase in Santa Clara County, CA, ramming another vehicle and shooting an unarmed man. Velasquez’s intended target, Harry Goularte, was not injured in the shooting, and is facing a felony charge of lewd acts of a minor in an incident involving the fighter’s son.
In an attempt to take justice into his own hands, Velasquez wound up shooting Goularte’s stepfather instead, and was sentenced to five years in prison. After being denied bail for an extended period after a judge deemed him a risk to public safety, he wound up securing early release with time served.
Thursday’s statement from Velasquez is his first since being released from custody. The fighter remains on probation.
“Hi everyone. Now that it’s been a couple weeks since my release, I’ve had some time to kind of get back into things, get back into a normal way of life, get used to just doing the normal things, being home with the family, being there for my kids,” Velasquez opened in a video statement posted on social media. “And I just wanted to thank everybody for their love and support. Your words of inspiration, of encouragement constantly just lifted me up, myself and my family. So I just want to take this time here to thank everybody for their constant support.”
“You have no idea what your words and your encouragement and your love has meant to me and my family. So just thank you. I’ll keep doing the work to get back to everyone. And just for myself now, just slowly get back out there without- I didn’t want to overwhelm myself with the pace of life that I was getting used to, to now all of a sudden, a new way of life, a new way of living, a new rhythm. So for myself, I just had to kind of get used to it, and I’ve been doing that. So again, just thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone, and it’s good to be out.”
In addition to his MMA career, which saw win the UFC heavyweight championship twice, Velasquez performed as a professional wrestler for WWE and Mexico’s Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide. He was also briefly linked to the ill-fated GFL in a coaching role.
