Cain Details ‘Respectful’ Talk With White Before Joining WWE

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It didn’t take long for Cain Velasquez to sign the dotted line with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) after crashing last week’s SmackDown event on FOX and beating up rival Brock Lesnar inside of the ring.

The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight champion was officially announced as the newest member of WWE’s roster earlier today during a press conference for the upcoming “Crown Jewel” PPV event on Oct. 31 from inside King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where Velasquez will take on Lesnar in his debut.

As a result of his WWE signing, Velasquez has put an official end to his MMA career and exited from UFC’s United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) testing pool, per ESPN. While Velasquez could be granted re-entry into UFC in the future should he pass six months of USADA drug testing, the former heavyweight titleholder is happy to turn the page and take a break from the chaos.

“I’m going to withdraw from that,” Velasquez said with a laugh when discussing USADA following the WWE press conference (h/t The Mac Life). “It’s great and all to see USADA come to my door at 7:00 in the morning whenever they want and just come in and rush me out of bed. So I’m okay getting pulled from USADA.”

Velasquez, who has been part of UFC since 2006, also detailed a conversation he had with UFC president Dana White prior to signing with WWE. White has always had a good working relationship with WWE owner Vince McMahon, but fight fans really didn’t know how the UFC boss would react to Velasquez leaving the Octagon for a rematch with a departed Lesnar.

“We ended up talking on the phone,” Velasquez said. “He just supported me 100 percent. It was just a good, respectful talk that we had. He thanked me for everything that I did. I thanked him and the company for everything that they did. He just gave me his full blessing. He said, ‘This is awesome, what you’re doing. Go ahead, you have my full consent to go ahead and do what you want to do.’”

With everything set in motion and nothing holding him back, Velasquez is free to get inside of the wrestling ring and challenge Lesnar once more. Velasquez, who defeated Lesnar inside of Octagon via TKO back at UFC 121, has maintained his animosity for “The Beast Incarnate” throughout the years so it should be easy for him to go full throttle in his WWE debut.

“That’s never left me,” explained Velasquez. “Those feelings that I had when I first fought him in 2010 now that’s amplified more so. I’ve been watching him in the WWE for a while and seeing what he does everyday. I’m not a fan of what he does and how he portrays himself when he’s wrestling. So I’m here to change some things.”

Stick with Mania for more news and coverage on Velasquez’s WWE crossover.