Cain Velasquez is going to jail.

On Monday, the former UFC heavyweight champion was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading No Contest in his attempted murder case. Velasquez gets credit for time served, meaning he will likely spend less than two years back behind bars as his long legal battle is finally over. So, let’s talk about Cain’s sentence, plus the fallout from this past weekend’s UFC London card where Sean Brady dominated Leon Edwards.

Cain Velasquez

“Hi Jed, my name is Mike Heck. My questions is, as someone who dabble in the law field, what was your reaction to the Cain Velasquez sentencing?”

For those who don’t know, once upon a time I was a lawyer before leaving that field to come to the wonderful world of MMA. Though I am no longer barred (as I don’t practice, keeping up my bar card would be a bit silly) I still have my juris doctor and so it’s with that legal knowledge I can say this with some confidence: you can’t start a car chase and shoot recklessly into another vehicle and expect to stay out of jail.

For those unaware, in 2022 Velasquez went on an 11-mile high-speed chase pursuing a car containing Harry Goularte, a man accused of molesting the fighter’s son at a daycare owned by Goularte’s mother. Velasquez then fired several rounds from a .40-caliber handgun at the vehicle containing Goularte but instead shot his stepfather Paul Bender in the arm. He was arrested shortly after without incident.

Since Velasquez was first arrested, there has been a surge of support for the former heavyweight champion, with no shortage of people declaring he did nothing wrong. Those people are incorrect. What happened to Velasquez’s son is a terrible tragedy, but Velasquez is not judge, jury, and executioner. You can’t just kill people, or try to, especially when they aren’t convicted of anything yet. If we allow that, then society has broken down completely.

Some people are not going to agree with that, but what even the most ardent Velasquez supporters should be able to admit—even if you think Velasquez is justified in attacking Goularte—is that Velasquez endangered far more than just Goularte with his actions. That’s evidenced by the fact that he shot someone else. Frankly, it’s a minor miracle that no one got grievously injured between an 11-mile car chase and reckless gunfire.

When this all first kicked off, I thought Velasquez was looking at a 10-year bid, with maybe half that for good behavior. So to walk away from this thing with only five years, I think Velasquez should be happy with this outcome. Prosecutors in the case were looking for a 30-year sentence. He got a small chunk of that. And had Velasquez been more unlucky that night, someone might have died and instead of coming home next year, Velasquez would have spent the rest of his life behind bars. Now, Velasquez has about one year left in prison, which is certainly not a joy, but it’s solid all things considered. And, frankly, feels like the right compromise in this situation.

Sean Brady

Sean Brady takes the belt from Belal Muhammad, amiright?

Umm, no?

Let’s start here: Sean Brady’s performance on Saturday was spectacular. I was of the opinion that Edwards was going to come in looking re-energized and make things very hard on Brady — and I couldn’t have been more wrong. Brady seized the initiative right from the opening bell and never let up. Moreover, he didn’t just beat Edwards, he broke him.

By the third round, “Rocky” didn’t want to be there anymore. That’s why Edwards even shot a takedown attempt despite getting out-classed on the ground, because he was mentally defeated. He was simply going through the motions until Brady found a way to finish him. It’s harsh, but it’s what I saw on Saturday, and that’s full credit to Brady for making that happen.

But do I think Brady beats Belal Muhammad? No, because I saw them fight before and it was not competitive. This isn’t to say that Brady hasn’t gotten better, or that he has no chance, but that fight wasn’t that long ago and “Remember the Name” dog-walked Brady. And it’s not like Belal has looked bad since then. He’s the guy who wrote the blueprint for beating Edwards that Brady followed.

If Brady can consistently get takedowns, he’s a threat to anybody in the welterweight division, but his striking is still lacking and there are some dudes at 170 that are really hard to take down. I think Belal is a bad style matchup for Brady, so unless something dramatic changes, if they ever do rematch I’m backing Muhammad to get it done again.

Well, what should we do with Sean Brady then?

Thoughts on Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Sean Brady as a potential fight, or perhaps Leon Edwards going up a weight class to fight Israel Adesanya?

I do not mean to be rude, but both of those are terrible ideas.

Let’s focus on the Brady vs. Shavkat fight for the most part, because several people threw this out as something that should happen. My counterpoint: Why?

Rakhmonov had a title fight. It was booked, he was ready for it, and then the champion got injured and withdrew. Instead of waiting a few months for Belal to get better, Rakhmonov did the UFC a solid and stayed on UFC 310, accepting a short-notice change of opponent and won. Why would anyone think he should fight again before getting his well-deserved title shot?

And the same holds true for Brady. Why should he fight again? He just beat the former champion and No. 1-ranked guy in the weight class. Sean Brady has done enough. We don’t need to thin the herd of contenders. Rakhmonov faces the winner of Muhammad vs. Jack Della Maddalena later this year, and Brady serves as the backup fighter. This is very easy.

(That being said, if they did fight, I’m picking Shavkat because again, Brady is a world-beater on top, but if he can’t get there, much less dangerous).

As for Leon Edwards going up to middleweight, I mean, sure. He’s not big enough to have sustained success in the weight class, but he can probably beat some people if he wants to do that. But booking him against Israel Adesanya is the worst idea I’ve ever heard. Twelve total strikes would be thrown in that fight over 25 minutes and everyone would go deaf from the decibel level of the boos. No thank you.

Leon Edwards

If Leon’s stay at the top of the UFC is coming to an end, how does his legacy compare to Michael Bisping’s? Which of them is the greater British UFC fighter?

Also I would be curious on your thoughts on Leon vs Jorge Masvidal - is now the best time to finally make this happen?

To me, the question of Edwards vs. Bisping is a very easy answer but one I don’t know if people will agree with: Leon Edwards is greater than Michael Bisping, but not as important.

Bisping is the godfather of British MMA. Even if he had never won a UFC title, “The Count” would still have been a massively significant fighter in the history of the sport. But then he messed around and did win a belt in one of the most Disney movie turns in MMA history. When people think of British MMA, Michael Bisping will always be the first name that comes to mind.

That being said, I think pretty obviously Edwards accomplished more than Bisping. A vast majority of Bisping’s career was losing against the best opposition he faced. It took him forever to get to a title shot — despite the UFC desperately wanting to get him a title shot — because he couldn’t win the big fights. Leon, meanwhile, has universally been considered great but held back by being boring. He won all the big fights he was in, even if sometimes it was ugly.

More to the point, Leon beat an all-time great to take the welterweight title and then added two defenses. Bisping’s title win was legitimate, but then he defended against the husk of Dan Henderson (and nearly lost) before losing to career welterweight Georges St-Pierre, who hand-picked him for the fight. Pretty clearly Leon is the better, more accomplished fighter of the two, in my mind.

As for the Jorge Masvidal of it all, yes. It’s time we pulled the trigger on Leon Edwards vs. Jorge Masvidal. Edwards looked listless and terrible against Brady, and while most of that is probably because of Brady, a part of me thinks Edwards might not be locked in anymore. Masvidal is an opponent who would certainly bring that out in him, and now that Leon is well outside of the title picture, we can have some fun.

Carlos Ulberg

Does Carlos Ulberg’s performance against Jan Blachowicz suggest that he’ll never be a champion? I just think at this stage of their career’s he needed a definitive decision or win. Then again LHW is washed so who knows.

In the co-main event on Saturday, Carlos Ulberg picked up a narrow decision win over former light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz. It was ... bad. But here’s the thing: it’s not entirely Ulberg’s fault.

The truth of the matter is, Jan Blachowicz is a sonuvabitch to fight. Other than Glover Teixeira — who took him down and tapped him — who has looked good against Jan over the past five years? Magomed Ankalaev and Alex Pereira, the two top light heavyweights in the world, both went to splits with him, because it’s nigh impossible to beat Blachowicz pretty. He’s so sound defensively and well-rounded that no matter who is fighting him, they’re not gonna look good.

That being said, Ulberg looked particularly bad. As much as I praised Blachowicz, he’s still 42 years old and was coming off a long layoff and shoulder injury, and I scored the fight for Jan. Ulberg was entirely unwilling to open up his offense against Blachowicz and that sort of timidity does not bode well for his title aspirations. I’m not saying never but the history of MMA suggests that fighters who aren’t willing to take risks rarely win a title. They might hold on to a title they already won, but it’s rare to see them take the belt from someone.

Also, yeah, light heavyweight is devastatingly bad. You can’t count anyone out from winning the belt in that weight class, because anything can happen.

Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck because you can send your tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer my favorite ones! It doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see y’all next week.