Tidigare har Cain Velasquez kallat händelsen för ”freak accident” och sagt att hans motståndare Francis Ngannou aldrig rörde honom innan hans knä vek sig. Nu går dock Velasquez tränare ut med att det faktiskt var ett otillåtet slag från Ngannous sida som till slut gjorde att denne vann deras match genom knockout.
Tränaren Javier Mendez , långvarig tränare till Velasquez, hävdar att Ngannou slog den tidigare mästaren i bakhuvudet med en hammerfist tidigt i matchen vilket gjorde Velasquez något yr. Mendez menar att domaren skulle utdömt no contest om han varit uppmärksam.
Han sade följande till MMA Fighting:
[Velasquez] wasn’t getting around too well (after the fight). But the screwed up [part] about that whole thing, originally when I saw the fight, I kept having to replay it, replay it, and I never saw what the hell happened. And I was thinking, well, what the hell? It’s just his knee gave out, right? And of course his knee gave out, right?
Mendez fortsatte med följande:
But then it wasn’t until I was home and he leaves me a text message and he goes, ‘I was fine until he hammerfisted me in the back of the head.’ And I’m like, what? What are you talking about, hammerfist? So I replayed the goddamn video and the very first strike that was hit was an illegal shot right behind the back of the head, when he shot in. And he said that dazed him a teeny bit and that’s what started this whole sequence, and nobody ever saw it. It was an illegal shot. If the ref would’ve caught it, it would’ve been a no contest.
Ngannou besegrade Velasquez genom knockout efter 26 sekunder vid UFC on ESPN 1 i februari i år.
