Cain Velasquez was pretty confident heading into his clash with Francis Ngannou and had in fact teased of potentially teasing a fight with UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. When Bones heard of it, he advised Velasquez to focus on his current fight. He should have listened.

Velasquez was a favorite against the knockout-conscious Ngannou heading into UFC on ESPN. But the Cameroonian-French professional who made a name for himself with vicious KOs could care less, needing only 26 seconds in the opening round to finish off Velasquez.

From the footage of the heavyweight clash, it seemed that a sneaky uppercut from Ngannou was all that was needed with the 36-year-old seemingly struggling to stand his ground after that hit. Velasquez was aggressive early, clearly going for a takedown but the plan backfired. Worse, it seemed that the former UFC champion fell awkwardly afterward, the Bloody Elbow reported.

But according to Velasquez, it was not the punch that did him in but the knee to the body, MMA Junkie reported. He suspects that his meniscus and medial collateral ligament (MCL) were also part of why his body gave and lauded referee Jason Herzog for stepping in at the right time.

“It was just the knee. As soon as I felt the knee buckle, it was like I couldn’t believe that happened, and that was it.”

From here, it will be interesting what Cain Velasquez has planned ahead. It was his first fight after nearly three years due to injuries and he previously mentioned that a loss could send him into retirement. For now, he remains non-committal.

“We’ll get it all checked out. The fire’s strong in me again still. I guess I’ve got a lot to prove, and I’m very capable of doing that,” Velasquez said.

On the other side, it will be interesting what the future holds for Ngannou who booked his 13th win, the 9th via knockout. He has suffered three losses to date against Stipe Miocic, Derrick Lewis and Zoumana Cisse.

Lewis or Miocic could be options although it would not be surprising if he takes aim at Jones as well. Brock Lesnar has also been mentioned in another report from MMA Junkie.

“For Brock Lesnar, he’s just walking around talking (expletive), but he never shows up for a fight,” he said. “So let’s see.”