Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez has revealed that he is using Cannabidiol (CBD) as a pain reliever to relieve back pain ahead of his UFC 207 co-main event rematch with Fabricio Werdum on December 30th.
Velsquez had previously revealed that he’s due to undergo surgery on January 4th to shave down bone spurs in his spine to make room for his sciatic nerve in the hope that it will relieve the pain in his back, which is also sending shooting pains down his right leg.
“It’s the only thing that allows me to still train, and I’m not taking a harmful pain killer into my body that I’ll later become addicted to,” Velasquez told ESPN.com. “I don’t know how everyone is going to feel about me saying this, but this is just one of the hard facts we as fighters have to go through. In the past, in the NFL, players have gotten addicted to pain killers. I don’t want to be an addict of some sort.”
At the present time using CBD is not a banned substance when used out-of-competition, but it’s not allowed in-competition, which is deemed as the period between six hours prior to the weigh-ins and six hours after his fight.
The injury-prone Velasquez insists his back issues hasn’t effected his training for his second fight with Werdum, but nevertheless it leaves some significant doubts about whether he’ll be able to perform at his best as he looks to avenge a 2015 title loss to the Brazilian next week.
