Joe Rogan claims Cain Velasquez — not Fedor or Stipe — is the best heavyweight of all time

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has seen some great heavyweight fighters in its day, including Stipe Miocic, who set a record for most title defenses in the 265-pound weight class. It also missed the opportunity to house some great heavyweight fighters, like former PRIDE FC heavyweight champion, Fedor Emelianenko.

Too bad neither of them were as good as Cain Velasquez.

That’s according to UFC color commentator Joe Rogan, who believes the former heavyweight champion stood head and shoulders above the rest of the field because of his endurance, something not often seen at that weight.

“Cain Velasquez, in my humble opinion, when I look at all of the different heavyweights that I’ve personally seen fight, Cain stands out as the best,” Rogan said on his official podcast (via MMA Fighting). “The reason why Cain stands out as the best is because he has superhuman endurance and his ability to put a pace on guys. You would see these guys just wilt under the pressure.”

Part of what hurts the 14-2 Velasquez in the “best ever” talk is how infrequently he competes, along with the fact that he was finished twice in the prime of his career. Fight fans have only seen the former BSN athlete two times over the last five years, and one of those performances resulted in a submission loss to Fabricio Werdum.

“I think with Cain - and this is where it gets really interesting - what did him in is also brought him to the top: his mental toughness,” Rogan continued. “His body started breaking down. He started having all these back injuries. He needed back surgery, multiple back surgeries, shoulder surgery, knee surgery, everything was getting fucked up and I think it was getting fucked up because he was working through pain and he has the ability to tolerate pain that most people don’t have. He’s just a fucking animal but that’s also probably what led to him having this insane endurance. It’s the same kind of mental toughness.”

According to his former teammate, Velasquez is ready to make his Octagon return but the promotion keeps “bullshitting him,” which suggests there are contract wrinkles that still need to be ironed out. In the interim, the WWE Performance Center has been putting Velasquez through the paces.

I guess there’s no love for Daniel Cormier in the G.O.A.T. conversation ... unless it’s coming from himself.