UFC legend Cain Velasquez given five-year prison sentence for attempted murder

Two-time UFC heavyweight world champion Cain Velasquez will spend the next five years in prison — but it was almost so much worse.

UFC legend Cain Velasquez has been jailed for five years after pleading no contest to attempted murder.

Prosecutors wanted the two-time heavyweight champ, 42, locked up for 30 years over a shooting in an 11-mile car chase three years ago.

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The sentencing, at the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice in San Jose, ended a shocking saga beset by court delays.

The Californian faced 10 charges following a high-speed road pursuit of Harry Goularte in 2022.

Goularte was accused of molesting Velasquez’s then four-year-old son on “multiple occasions”.

During the car case, MMA star Velasquez fired several shots into the other vehicle.

Velasquez will spend the next five years behind bars. Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images

Goularte, as well as Goularte’s mother and stepfather Paul Bender, were in it.

Bender suffered non-life threatening injuries from a gunshot wound to his arm.

Velasquez pleaded no contest to all the resulting charges, with prosecutors demanding a long sentence.

His defence team asked the court to consider probation and the time he had already served behind bars.

Velasquez had gone into the sentencing having already said he took full responsibility for his actions.

“From what I can say as far as myself, the way that I handled things, that was not the way to do it,” Velasquez told The Kyle Kingsbury Podcast.

“We cannot put the law in our own hands.”

Velasquez insisted that he recognised the dangerous impact of his behaviour.

He added that this included not just those people directly involved but others too.

Velasquez also said he would accept his punishment, whatever it was.

He retired from MMA in 2019 but then turned to wrestling, most recently with Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide.

This story first appeared in The Sun and was republished with permission.