Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez is the newest huge identify to be snatched up by the fledgling International Struggle League.
However Velasquez received’t be preventing. The 42-year-old will function a supervisor within the team-based league, the GFL stated Friday in a information launch.
Velasquez named his longtime coach at American Kickboxing Academy, Javier Mendez, as his group’s head coach. Mendez’s pupils embody Velasquez and UFC champions like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev and Daniel Cormier.
The expectation is that the GFL will begin as a six-team league with occasions around the globe. Finally, there might be playoffs and a championship card. The groups might be made up of each female and male fighters, and the promotion’s early back-pat is that the income stream might be shared equally among the many fighters and promotion.
A draft is ready for Jan. 24, which for Velasquez represents an attention-grabbing scenario. He’s scheduled for a sentencing date the identical day in Santa Clara County (Calif.) court docket for prices together with tried homicide.
Velasquez has been out on bail since November 2022. A full record of prices contains tried homicide (one rely), capturing at a motorized vehicle or plane (one rely), assault with a firearm (three counts), assault with a lethal weapon (three counts), willfully discharging a firearm from a car (one rely) and carrying a loaded firearm with intent to commit a felony (one rely).
Velasquez initially pleaded not responsible to the fees however modified his plea to no contest in August.
Velasquez was arrested practically three years in the past after he allegedly pursued and shot at a person, Harry Goularte, accused of molesting Velasquez’s then 4-year-old son at a daycare. Velasquez allegedly chased a automobile carrying Goularte and members of the family throughout a high-speed chase with a bullet putting Goularte’s stepfather, inflicting damage.
Goularte faces a felony cost of lewd acts with a minor that also is within the trial setting and movement listening to part. There additionally is a coinciding civil lawsuit by the Velasquez household towards Goularte, his household and their companies.
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