Cole Konrad Defends Lesnar's Training, Says Former Champ Will Be Back

Brock Lesnar has yet to speak publicly since losing his UFC heavyweight title to Cain Velasquez last week, and chances are we aren't going to hear from him any time soon.

Lesnar's good friend and training partner, Cole Konrad, stopped by The MMA Hour last week, and while the new Bellator heavyweight champion said he would rather Lesnar explain his actions and future himself, he did offer some thoughts on what went wrong against Velasquez.

"There's a million things you can look at and critique with any fight," Konrad said. "[Lesnar] came out real hard in hopes to hurt [Velasquez] early, and I think when that didn't take place, he was a bit shocked as I think a lot of people were. That's a big powerful man coming at you. He expended a lot of energy early and wasn't able to recover."

When we spoke to Konrad, he said he didn't talk Lesnar after the fight, but didn't expect him to lick his wounds for too long.

"I think he knew going into it it was going to be a tough fight against a good guy, and there's always that possibility when you're fighting somebody that can happen. So knowing him, I'm sure he's disappointed on how it went, but I don't think he's going to get overly down on himself. If anything he's going to be back in the gym working harder."

Lesnar and his camp have received a fair amount of criticism following the fight for their game plan and training methods, but Konrad, a former NCAA champion at the University of Minnesota, says that there is a no validity to the argument that Lesnar's training partners aren't pushing him enough leading up to a fight.

"We fly in the best guys in all situations. I mean, kickboxing, boxing, wrestling, submissions. We got the best guys there are, period, coming in and training with him and pushing him in each situation. So whoever says that, they obviously aren't in the gym, they have no idea," Konrad said.

"Unless you're there, you don't understand. We got a lot going on there. It wasn't because a lack of effort."

As for what's next for Konrad, he expects to fight again in Bellator's fourth season but doesn't know when or against who. The 26-year-old made his MMA debut in January 2010, and has won his first seven fights in a row. He defeated Neil Grove to win Bellator's inaugural heavyweight title last month.