The Cain Velasquez story is shocking, sad, and incredibly frustrating.
For those who aren’t familiar, Cain Velasquez, the former UFC heavyweight champion, was recently sentenced to five years in prison after pleading no contest to attempted murder and related charges stemming from a 2022 shooting incident. Due to time already served, approximately eight months in jail and additional time under house arrest, he is expected to serve less than two years in total.
The incident occurred on February 28, 2022, in San Jose, California. Velasquez pursued a vehicle carrying Harry Goularte, a man accused of molesting Velasquez’s four-year-old son on multiple occasions at the daycare facility Velasquez’s son was attending. During an 11-mile, high-speed chase, Velasquez fired multiple shots from his handgun into the vehicle, inadvertently injuring Goularte’s stepfather, Paul Bender. Velasquez was arrested without incident and initially held without bail. He spent nearly nine months in custody before being released on a $1 million bail in November 2022, under conditions including GPS monitoring and a restraining order. Harry Goularte on the other hand, was immediately released on bail and now faces felony child molestation charges and is awaiting trial. Additionally, Velasquez has filed a civil lawsuit against Goularte and the daycare facility operated by Goularte’s mother, alleging negligence and sexual battery.
In August 2024, Velasquez entered a no-contest plea to charges of attempted murder, felony assault, and gun-related offenses. Prosecutors had sought a 30-year sentence, but the court acknowledged Velasquez’s lack of prior criminal history and his remorse, leading to a reduced sentence. The case drew widespread attention and sympathy from the MMA community, with many expressing understanding of Velasquez’s actions as a father protecting his child. However, legal authorities emphasized the dangers posed by taking justice into one’s own hands.
Longtime UFC commentator and podcast host, Joe Rogan, recently weighed on on the sentencing, and it’s hard to disagree with the way he describes the sad situation. As the father of a little girl and a little boy myself, I can’t promise that I would be in my right mind either.
In a recent conversation with Ilia Topuria, a professional UFC fighter competing in the Lightweight division, Joe said:
“So Cain’s son was going to daycare and there was a man who molested him at daycare. Cain found out about it chased the man in his car and shot at him. He tried to catch him in his car and shot at him. Cain gets arrested, Cain stayed in jail. The guy gets arrested and he got out on bail. I don’t know what’s happening with the guy, I don’t know if he’s been sentenced yet or what but this guy molested his son multiple times. I don’t know how many times, but he did what every father would have done.”
He went on to say that you can’t understand the level of rage unless you’re a father yourself:
“If you’re not a father you do not understand the murderous rage you would have if some man molested your baby. You don’t understand. You would see red in a way that no one can describe to you unless you’re a parent That f***ing anger… I mean if there’s ever a plea for temporary insanity, that’s that’s the plea. If there’s ever a person who could justifiably say “I was temporarily insane,” it’s a father that’s chasing after someone, especially a man, who molests your boy. Everybody understands it. Everybody understands it.
He should have never gone to jail. He’s not a threat to society. He’s not a danger. He shouldn’t be in prison. And he already did three years, he was already in jail for three years. It’s horrific. It’s horrific, I just don’t understand it. I mean, the judge’s hands were tied. He had to make a sentence and this is the I think the minimum amount, they were trying to give him 30 years for attempted murder because he was just shooting at this guy. And obviously when you’re driving and shooting you could miss him and and kill a bystander. It’s very dangerous, but also the guy was in a murderous rage for a good reason, for a good reason. Of course, if he killed that guy, the world would be better off. That’s my feeling… a guy walking around like that who molests children should be dead. You’re victimizing children the most vulnerable and protected people that we have…
Kill them all, that’s how I feel. Kill them all. Anybody wants to do that to children, there’s no reason for them to exist. You’re just going to ruin lives, and not just their lives but you’re going to ruin all the people whose lives they ruin cuz they’re all f***ed up now. You kill so much potential from a human being to do that to a baby. It’s just insane. It’s just f***ing insane. So that’s unfortunately the story with Cain right now.”
I think it’s pretty fair to say that you can’t go around and take the law into your own hands, but I also think it’s completely fair to expect that from any father. Like I said, as a father myself, I can’t promise that I wouldn’t do the exact same thing… in fact, I probably wouldn’t have stopped until he was dead. Plain and simple. I’ll take my chances with a jury…
It’s also hard to fathom how a man can do that to a small child and be released back into the public, while a man who tried to stop this predator, and failed, was locked away for nearly a year and then given 2 more on house arrest. Clearly, Cain wasn’t a threat to the rest of society, he was a threat to one single person. Can’t say the same about Harry Goularte, who worked at a daycare. I’m not saying just let him walk om day 1, but a reasonable bail is appropriate.
I think Joe summed it up pretty nicely… put ’em all in the ground.
Here’s the full podcast conversation, the talk about Cain begins around the 34 minute mark:
