It’s every father’s worst nightmare.
Someone allegedly did something to your young child. Do you do something about it to defend your child’s honor and possibly risk jail time, or do you let the authorities handle it?
While presented as a tough choice, most fathers would tell you that the former choice is the correct (and easy) one.
For UFC legend Cain Velasquez, it certainly was — and he had to serve prison time for it.
And now that he’s out, the 43-year-old mixed martial artist has some gratitude to get off his chest.
“Blessed to be out, thank you to all for the love and support; you all have lifted me up so high,” Velasquez posted to Instagram on Wednesday, as reported by the New York Post. “Grateful for all the understanding thus far and I look forward to a road of service.”
“I’ll keep doing the work to get back to everyone,” Velasquez said in the video itself — his first remarks since getting out of prison.
He added, “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 the 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 everyone. And it’s good to be out,” he said.
As KSBW-TV chronicled, in 2025, Velasquez was sentenced to five years in prison for attempted murder.
Velasquez was accused of attempting to shoot a man during a high-speed car chase in 2022. The man he was chasing was Harry Goularte, a daycare worker accused of molesting Velasquez’s 4-year-old son.
While firing on Goularte’s vehicle, Velasquez struck and injured his stepfather. Goularte’s mother was also in the car at the time.
Velasquez would eventually strike a plea deal. He apologized for his behavior and was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
Despite the sentencing happening in 2025, Velasquez was released less than a year into the sentence.
The New York Post reported that Velasquez was “credited with over 1,000 days served, which included time spent on house arrest in jail in the leadup to his 2024 trial.”
Velasquez had a notable MMA career, with the heavyweight retiring in 2019 with a record of 14-3.
His last fight came in 2019, when he was roughed up and lost in the first round against Francis Ngannou.
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