Even in retirement, Cain Velasquez’s combined martial arts coaching entourage by no means left his facet.
Time and again, the previous Final Preventing Championship star walked into the cavernous coaching halls of American Kickboxing Academy in South San Jose together with his kids in tow – even guiding them into the ring to play.
“They have been a part of the crew,” mentioned Favian Gutierrez, 37, a fellow fighter on the gymnasium. “He’s been a household man.”
However final week, one other picture emerged – this time, of Velasquez standing shackled in a Santa Clara County courtroom, accused of attempting to shoot a person charged with molesting Velasquez’s underage relative. The allegations forged renewed nationwide consideration on a fighter who notoriously shunned UFC’s vivid highlight. And it laid naked help for a model of vigilantism that followers and fellow fighters lauded on social media – whilst prosecutors decried Velasquez’s alleged crime as reckless, and regulation consultants described the arguments supporting him as legally shaky.
“We haven’t actually seen proof to recommend it is a self-defense case,” mentioned Dean Johnson, a authorized analyst, criminal-defense legal professional and former prosecutor. “You'll be able to’t use drive as a result of anyone may hurt you sooner or later. It must be so imminent it’s a necessity.”
Nonetheless, Johnson added, “It is a very early stage of the case … and the circumstances are fairly uncommon.”
A few of Velasquez’s supporters say the alleged incident seems out of character for him. And for a lot of of Velasquez’s mates and fellow fighters, the preliminary shock of Velasquez’s arrest light as particulars emerged of a possible motive.
A number of described him as a person whose depth as an MMA fighter was matched solely by his devotion to household.
“If somebody did that to my household, in an act of rage, I in all probability would have finished the identical factor,” Gutierrez mentioned. “If the system fails you, and so they let somebody out like that, it’s not honest.”
All through the week, the MMA world’s greatest stars rushed to Velasquez’s protection, typically ending their tweets with the slogan “#FreeCain.”
“You're the man Cain,” mentioned Khabib Nurmagomedov, thought-about among the many finest MMA fighters of all time, in an Instagram put up Wednesday that garnered practically a half-million likes. “We love you and we all the time stick with you.”
Regionally, Zach Parish, 37, a former South Bay MMA fighter who beforehand educated with Velasquez, bemoaned a bigger tragedy.
“He’s father, very attentive, caring, nurturing,” Parish mentioned. “He’s simply throughout very calm – one of many calmest folks I do know.
“For one thing like this to occur, it’s heartbreaking,” he mentioned. “In each side – to have one thing like that occur to his (relative), and to have this occur subsequent, it’s horrible.”
Prosecutors allege Velasquez tried to shoot Harry Goularte, 43, who had been charged a number of days earlier with molesting Velasquez’s underage relative at a San Martin dwelling day care. Goularte had been launched pending trial.
Over the span of 11 miles on Monday afternoon, Velasquez adopted Goularte’s mom and stepfather from their San Martin home to Morgan Hill, the place they deliberate to select up Harry Goularte and acquire a court-ordered digital monitoring system, based on charging paperwork.
From there, Velasquez chased the household – ramming his pickup into theirs and opening fireplace with a .40-caliber pistol into their truck, charging paperwork say.
The encounter left Goularte’s stepfather with gunshot wounds to his arm and torso, authorities mentioned. Later that day, officers took Velasquez into custody and booked him into the Santa Clara County jail, the place he stays held with out bail.
Within the ring, Velasquez was hailed by UFC’s chief as “the Terminator” for his relentless stamina and ruthless physicality.
Joe Rogan, the podcaster and MMA fanatic, has repeatedly praised Velasquez as maybe the best heavyweight UFC fighter of all time, typically as a result of his conditioning and excessive bodily health.
“What Cain would do to folks is he’d overwhelm you in a manner that appeared such as you have been drowning,” Rogan mentioned on a 2019 podcast.
Velasquez has attributed that livid work ethic to his father – a migrant employee from Mexico who crossed the Sonoran desert to Arizona and picked lettuce to help the household. Whereas his father continued selecting crops, Velasquez labored his technique to turn out to be a two-time state highschool wrestling champion – finally transferring on to Arizona State College, the place he earned All-American honors. He later graduated with a bachelor’s diploma in interdisciplinary research.
He returned to the Bay Space, and with the phrases “Brown Satisfaction” tattooed throughout his chest, grew to become UFC’s first Mexican-American heavyweight champion. He amassed a 14-3 document, racking up title belts in 2010 and 2012.
Alongside the best way, he helped elevate American Kickboxing Academy into an internationally revered hub for champion MMA fighters.
“The Mexican group, the combating group, the Bay Space cherished Cain,” mentioned Cung Le, a fellow UFC fighter who was among the many Bay Space’s early MMA stars.
Although he was 6-foot-1 and practically 250 kilos, Velasquez had a soft-spoken nature and confirmed little curiosity in a star way of life. Typically, he most popular quiet nights at dwelling to the trash-talking, clubbing and partying that’s turn out to be synonymous with different UFC stars.
“He solely goes out to do promotional stuff,” Le mentioned. “Aside from that he simply hangs out together with his household. He’s a really devoted father and a husband.”
Each followers and critics seized on Velasquez’s “household man” persona within the wake of his arrest final week on tried homicide prices. Some lamented on social media the toll that Velasquez’s household might endure, ought to he be convicted and serve time.
The MMA icon may face greater than 20 years in jail if convicted on all counts.
Numerous MMA followers on social media painted an image of a person taking motion in service to his household.
Robert Weisberg, regulation professor and co-director of the Stanford Legal Justice Heart, mentioned Velasquez’s hiring of movie star legal professional Mark Geragos suggests he might attempt to leverage public opinion and argue that the taking pictures was not malicious however “the righteous act of a distressed” relative in looking for a dismissal of the case.
“The warmth of ardour mitigation thought, a choose must let that go to the jury,” Weisberg mentioned. “It wouldn’t be whether or not an affordable particular person would kill; it’s moderately, would an affordable particular person be strongly tempted to kill, and that has some logic right here.”
Johnson mentioned there’s a good likelihood that the protection will distinction Velasquez’s low-key nature with Goularte’s alleged crimes.
“You do all the things you possibly can to indicate he's usually a nonviolent particular person and wouldn’t provoke one thing like this,” he mentioned. “And also you do all the things you probably can to emphasize the truth that the alleged sufferer is accused of against the law towards a toddler. Juries are human, too, and so they’re going to guage that credibility and Velasquez’s actions.”
Nonetheless, any outright dismissal, no less than by the district legal professional’s workplace, is sort of definitely out of the query, with prosecutors aware that could possibly be interpreted as an endorsement of vigilantism. The concept that Velasquez was failed by the courts when Goularte was launched — one other sturdy sentiment that has risen out of the general public response to the costs — has been opposed by prosecutors who contend that Goularte was being held accountable by means of his prison cost.
Weisberg additionally strongly rejected the concept of a self-defense or related argument.
“It could be an outstanding stretch,” Weisberg mentioned. “It must be proven that Velasquez moderately believed that if he didn’t intervene when he did, and the best way he did, proper then and there, the child could be harmed. That’s simply not believable.”