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FightIQ · Record · Cain Velasquez
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Cain Velasquez

UFC 12-3Pro 14-3tale of the tape = factsmetrics = our read

FightIQ’s profile

Built from Cain Velasquez’s own numbers — record, form, fighting style and standout rate. Not reported prose. Wrestler

UFC recordUFC 12-3 first fight 2008-04-19 · last fight 2019-02-17
Pro record14-3
Current streak1 loss
Last 5 (UFC)L W L W W
DivisionHeavyweight
Age44
Height6' 1"
StanceOrthodox

6' 1" orthodox wrestler campaigning at Heavyweight. 12 UFC wins — 10 KO/TKO, 2 decision. Top 5% of Heavyweights: lands 6.37 significant strikes a minute and averages 5.13 takedowns per 15 minutes.

Every figure here is recomputed at build time from the official fight record and the striking and grappling numbers on this page — there is no stored snapshot to go out of date. If a number isn’t in the data, it isn’t in this profile.

Tale of the tape facts

The facts, plainly — vitals and record from public UFC statistics; nickname, nationality and camp from the public fighter register. A field we can't source stays “pending”; it never shows a fake value. Where a fighter was born and where they fight out of come from their Wikipedia entry; where we hold neither, the hometown shown is Sherdog’s. The social accounts are the ones linked from the fighter’s own official athlete page — we don’t match handles by name. The UFC record is counted from the official results themselves, and is dated by the first and last bout it counts.

Nicknamepending
NationalityUnited States
Hometown (per Sherdog)Salinas, California
CampAmerican Kickboxing Academy
Height6' 1"
Reach77"
StanceOrthodox
Age44
Date of birthJul 28, 1982
Weight240 lbs.
Pro record14-3
UFC recordUFC 12-3 first fight 2008-04-19 · last fight 2019-02-17
Finish split12 UFC wins — 10 KO/TKO, 2 decision
Social

Rank history facts

Every week Cain Velasquez has stood in the official UFC rankings, one row per table, 2 of them, each band running from the table that set it to the table that changed it.

Cain Velasquez in the official UFC rankings, Feb 2013 to Oct 2026: one row per table, filled with the status each published table set20132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026Heavyweight290 weeks on the tablesChampion · from the table of 4 February 2013No table on record · May 2013 – May 2013Champion · from the table of 21 May 2013CHAMPION#1–5 · from the table of 15 June 2015No table on record · Mar 2016 – Apr 2016#1–5 · from the table of 12 April 2016No table on record · Oct 2016 – Nov 2016#1–5 · from the table of 7 November 2016No table on record · Aug 2017 – Sep 2017#1–5 · from the table of 4 September 2017#6–10 · from the table of 19 February 2019Belt wonReign endsLast rankedPound-for-pound155 weeks on the tables#6–10 · from the table of 4 February 2013No table on record · May 2013 – May 2013#6–10 · from the table of 21 May 2013#1–5 · from the table of 19 August 2013#6–10 · from the table of 22 December 2014#1–5 · from the table of 16 March 2015#6–10 · from the table of 15 June 2015#11–15 · from the table of 14 December 2015#11–15 · from the table of 10 May 2016First rankedLast ranked
Champion#1–5#6–10#11–15Outside the tableNo table on record
PeakChampionHeavyweight · Feb 2013
Weeks as champion121on the published tables
Weeks at #1–5136on the published tables, title reigns aside
CurrentUnrankedsince Oct 2019

Official UFC.com official rankings, 2013–present · rankings of 6 October 2026

A published rank holds until the next table changes it, so a band runs from the table that set it to the table that ended it — that is how a ranking works, and it is why an unbroken reign is drawn unbroken. Nothing is interpolated: the band is the last published STATUS, never a rank in between, and the hatched stretches are weeks the archive holds no table for at all. The champion band sits above #1 because a belt is not a rank. The three pound-for-pound tables — the combined one to January 2020, then the Men's and Women's ones — share a row, because they are one standing under three names.

Career rates facts

Career averages over Cain Velasquez’s UFC bouts, straight from public UFC statistics — the same eight numbers on his official record. These are the source’s figures, not our read: what we make of them is the card below.

Striking
Strikes landed / min6.37
Striking accuracy57%
Strikes absorbed / min2.33
Striking defence57%
Grappling
Takedowns / 15 min5.13
Takedown accuracy45%
Takedown defence85%
Sub attempts / 15 min0.40

FightIQ Metrics

Six 0–100 scores, each a percentile rank against the Heavyweight field — not against the whole roster. Tap any i for what a score measures.

FightIQ's read — derived from the tape
Our read — derived, not official stats. Ranked within Heavyweight.
Striking89
Defence78
Grappling / TD57
Cardio68
Chin72
Fight IQ73

Strike zones

Strike zones

Cain Velasquez

Where the strikes go — and where they land on him. Career UFC totals, straight off the tape.

HEAD75.4%ACC 52%BODY10.7%ACC 86%LEGS13.9%ACC 88%
FightIQ read Head-first striker 75.4% upstairs — +8.4 on the field average, with the rest spread below.
Share by zonevs field average
HEAD
75.4% acc 52%+8.4 vs field
BODY
10.7% acc 86%−7.8 vs field
LEGS
13.9% acc 88%−0.6 vs field
Where the offence happens
DISTANCE 36%CLINCH 27%GROUND 37%

Significant strikes only, as recorded by UFCStats, across the fighter's whole UFC career. Shares are raw counts — nothing here is modelled or smoothed. Accuracy is landed ÷ attempted and comes from the per-round tape, which covers slightly fewer fights than the totals do. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average.

15 UFC fights · 719 landed

Takedowns

Takedowns

Cain Velasquez

The level change — how often it lands, how often it is stopped. Career UFC rates, straight off the tape.

5.13takedowns / 15 min
FightIQ read Volume wrestler 5.13 takedowns landed per 15 minutes — +2.74 on the field average.
Career ratesvs field average
TAKEDOWNS93
5.13 / 15m+2.74 vs field
ATTEMPTS93
11.40 / 15m+6.34 vs field
ACCURACY50
45%−6pp vs field
SUB ATT27
0.40 / 15m−1.31 vs field

Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (6.29 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average.

Ranked in Heavyweight

Recent form

Pro record: 14-3. In the UFC: 12-3. Cain Velasquez’s last 8 UFC bouts, most recent first — the result in the cage, not our pick.

Straight off the official UFC fight record. Card names are left off on purpose: the only event labels in our data are derived, and we’d rather print nothing than print one that’s wrong.

Post-fight bonuses

4 post-fight bonuses since the UFC’s bonus programme began in 2006 — 1 Performance of the Night, 3 Knockout of the Night.

DateAwardOpponentEvent
2016-07-09POTNPerformance of the NightTravis BrowneUFC 200: Tate vs Nunes
2010-10-23KOTNKnockout of the NightBrock LesnarUFC 121: Lesnar vs Velasquez
2010-02-20KOTNKnockout of the NightAntonio Rodrigo NogueiraUFC 110: Nogueira vs Velasquez
2009-02-07KOTNKnockout of the NightDenis StojnicUFC Fight Night: Lauzon vs Stephens

The UFC's post-fight bonus programme began in 2006, so every total here is a career total since 2006. A fighter who fought only before then has no bonuses because the award did not exist yet. Fight of the Night is a shared award and is credited to both fighters. Performance, Knockout and Submission of the Night are individual awards, credited to the fighter the official record names.

Awards whose recipient the official list does not name are credited to nobody, so these counts are a floor: 245 of 1,339 Performance of the Night and 1 of 180 Submission of the Night awards are unassigned as of 11 October 2026.

Full UFC career — 15 bouts every fight on the official record, newest first
DateOpponentMethodRdEvent
2019-02-17LFrancis NgannouKO/TKOR1UFC Fight Night: Ngannou vs. Velasquez
2016-07-09WTravis BrowneKO/TKOR1UFC 200: Tate vs Nunes
2015-06-13LFabricio WerdumSubmissionR3UFC 188: Velasquez vs Werdum
2013-10-19WJunior Dos SantosKO/TKOR5UFC 166: Velasquez vs Dos Santos 3
2013-05-25WAntonio SilvaKO/TKOR1UFC 160: Velasquez vs Silva 2
2012-12-29WJunior Dos SantosDecision (unanimous)R5UFC 155: Dos Santos vs Velasquez II
2012-05-26WAntonio SilvaKO/TKOR1UFC 146: Dos Santos vs Mir
2011-11-12LJunior Dos SantosKO/TKOR1UFC on FOX: Velasquez vs Dos Santos
2010-10-23WBrock LesnarKO/TKOR1UFC 121: Lesnar vs Velasquez
2010-02-20WAntonio Rodrigo NogueiraKO/TKOR1UFC 110: Nogueira vs Velasquez
2009-10-24WBen RothwellKO/TKOR2UFC 104: Machida vs Shogun
2009-06-13WCheick KongoDecision (unanimous)R3UFC 99: The Comeback
2009-02-07WDenis StojnicKO/TKOR2UFC Fight Night: Lauzon vs Stephens
2008-07-19WJake O'BrienKO/TKOR1UFC: Silva vs Irvin
2008-04-19WBrad MorrisKO/TKOR1UFC 83: Serra vs St-Pierre 2

Every date links to that bout’s own page. Card names come from the official event record; where the UFC ran two cards on one date, or that record has no row for it, the Event column is left empty rather than filled with a guess.

On the map

The 10 cities Cain Velasquez has fought a UFC bout in, the camp on the record and the hometown on the record. Every pin was looked up by name in OpenStreetMap’s gazetteer and stored with the answer it gave; nothing here is estimated.

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA — 5 bouts, 2008–2016Anaheim, California, USA — 2 bouts, 2010–2011Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany — 1 bout, 2009Houston, Texas, USA — 1 bout, 2013Los Angeles, California, USA — 1 bout, 2009Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico — 1 bout, 2015Montreal, Quebec, Canada — 1 bout, 2008Phoenix, Arizona, USA — 1 bout, 2019Sydney, New South Wales, Australia — 1 bout, 2010Tampa, Florida, USA — 1 bout, 2009Camp: American Kickboxing AcademyHometown: Salinas, California

Coastline: Natural Earth (public domain). Pins: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Every host city and camp on one map.

← See the full public record