Alex Pereira Trains Wrestling With Cain Velasquez Ahead of UFC 335

Alex Pereira has been working with Cain Velasquez to sharpen his wrestling ahead of a matchup against Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 335. The bout is scheduled for December 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and serves as a likely No. 1 contender fight.

Wrestling Preparation with a UFC Legend

Ahead of the December event, the Brazilian MMA star turned to Velasquez to address his grappling foundations. Velasquez shared footage of the training sessions on social media, offering a look at the techniques he is passing on to Pereira with the caption “Chama por vida.”

Velasquez brings extensive experience to the training room. The 44-year-old began his professional career in 2006 under the Strikeforce banner before moving to the UFC in 2008. He captured the heavyweight championship in October 2010 at UFC 121 by defeating Brock Lesnar via knockout in his seventh organizational appearance.

His tenure atop the division included a defense against Bigfoot Silva and a successful trilogy bout against Junior dos Santos, who had briefly taken the belt from him in November 2011 at UFC on FOX 1. After subsequent defeats to Fabricio Werdum and Francis Ngannou, alongside a victory over Travis Browne, Velasquez retired from mixed martial arts in 2019 and transitioned briefly to professional wrestling with the WWE.

Following a 2022 arrest on attempted murder charges, Velasquez served time before his release in February 2026. He has since returned to the sport through appearances at MVP MMA in May and his current work with Pereira.