Longtime UFC commentator Joe Rogan and Colby Covington are the latest figures in the MMA community to express support for jailed ex-UFC champ Cain Velasquez.
Rogan addressed Velasquez’s legal troubles on Friday during an interview with Michael Bisping on The Joe Rogan Experience. Bisping also expressed support for Velasquez, who faces multiple charges including first-degree attempted murder for allegedly shooting a man charged with molesting his close family member.
“You could only imagine the rage, the f****** rage that must have been going through that man’s mind,” Rogan said. “I mean, my only wish is that he did it with his hands. My only wish is that he just ran that car off the road, pulled that guy out of the f****** car, and beat him to death. F*** you.”
“And even that would have been too good for him,” Bisping added.
Velasquez was apprehended and jailed this past Monday after allegedly confronting the man, Harry Eugene Goularte, who had been charged with molestation this past month and subsequently been released over the objections of prosecutors in Santa Clara County, Calif. According to police, Velasquez engaged in an 11-mile, high-speed chase through San Jose, Calif. Velasquez allegedly rammed his truck into the man’s truck and fired at the man with a .40-caliber pistol. The man’s 63-year-old stepfather was hit by gunfire and wounded.
Goularte is accused of molesting Velasquez’s family member “100 times” at a daycare facility owned by his mother where he lived but did not work. Goularte denied wrongdoing to police, but a charge of a lewd or lascivious act upon a child under age 14 was filed after investigators interviewed the alleged victim.
“That is a sickness,” Rogan said of the allegations against Goularte. “There’s like a certain sickness that people have, that human beings have, sicknesses of the mind. But that one, molesting a f****** baby? A four-year-old is like a baby. The molesting children is the sickest of all of those sicknesses.”
Velasquez remains in Santa Clara County Main Jail North; his arraignment was postponed until Monday. He faces more than 20 years in prison if convicted on the charges.
On Saturday, Covington interrupted his post-fight interview at the UFC 272 press conference to express his support for the ex-heavyweight champ.
“Let’s talk about Cain Velasquez,” he said on the dais after beating Jorge Masvidal in the main event. “Free Cain, man. What he did, a lot of people wouldn’t have done the same thing, but I respect the s*** out of him. I mean, having your kid be molested, we talk about that all the time, that we would do [what Velasquez did]. But he was in that situation, and he actually did it. So free Cain, much respect and love, and I hope you get out soon.”
