Fightline.com: Yeah, especially with the caliber of guys you train with in Koscheck, Fitch and Swick. Those guys are a lot smaller than you of course, but are there times when you spar with them?

Velasquez: If there's no big guys yeah, I have to go against those guys. But they do handicap me. My coach Jimenez will tell me, 'Just throw your right hand' or 'don't hit them hard' and sometimes he'll have to calm me down if I hit someone with a good shot. And then sometimes he'll say, 'just defense', so they'll throw at me and I just defend.

Fightline.com: Are there any heavyweights for you to train with over at AKA.

Velasquez: Yeah, but I still can't go 100%. We've got Mike Kyle, we've got Paul Buentello, Kyle Kingsbury, and coach will have those guys rotate in on me every two and a half minutes. It's good. I don't like it, but it's good. Going into the last round your tired and all of a sudden here's a fresh guy coming at you so it makes you mad.

Fightline.com: So do you let those guys go hard at you?

Velasquez: We'll let them go hard, but... I'll hurt 'em so, I'll either tire them out or I'll hurt them with a big shot, so the coaches have to calm me down a little bit at times.

Fightline.com: Wow! So there's not really anyone in the gym who you can go heads up with?

Velasquez: Well, that's kind of why we have guys rotate in. It's good work. It's really helping me and I've seen a big difference just from that training.

Fightline.com: Since we haven't seen you go a full three rounds yet, how's your conditioning?

Velasquez: That's what I'm known for is my conditioning. When I wrestled that's what people knew me for. You haven't seen it yet but once people see it I think they'll know. I'll put my conditioning up against anyone.

Fightline.com: You basically came in with two other big time heavyweight prospects in Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin. Do you look over at what they're doing and compare yourself to them?

Velasquez: I think you have to because we all came in at the same time. We will meet down the road. We'll meet in a fight, so I just to look at the film and just see what their weaknesses and strenghths are and keep in my mind that we will have to fight soon.

Fightline.com: Is their any animosity towards Brock Lesnar for his quick success?

Velasquez: No, I think they had to push him a little faster just because he's a big name. I'm just glad with the way they've started me off just because I wanted more ring time. I had two fights before the UFC and I wanted more before coming into the UFC because I wanted to get more situated with the cage, but we couldn't get any more fights anywhere else, so I had to come to the UFC. I'm really fine with how they started me out, but I have a lot more to learn from the sport and I can get 100% better with time.