TORONTO – With Cain Velasquez reportedly recovering nicely from a recent shoulder surgery, UFC president Dana White is eyeing a fall return for his heavyweight champion.Following Saturday night's UFC 129 post-event press conference at Toronto's Rogers Centre, White told a small group of reporters that Velasquez will likely return at the as-yet-unannounced UFC 136 event, which is expected to take place in Houston and coincide with the company's second UFC Fan Expo of 2011.
"Probably," White said when asked if Velasquez would headline the card. "I think that would make a lot of sense."
At a Friday Q&A session at this past weeked's UFC Fan Expo Toronto 2011, White announced the company's plans to bring an expo to Houston.
UFC 136 will likely take place on Oct. 8 at the city's 18,000-seat Toyota Center, which also hosted UFC 69 in 2007. The UFC has not visited the city since that night, an event that will forever be remembered for Matt Serra's shocking upset of current UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre.
Velasquez has been sidelined since his October 2010 victory over then-champion Brock Lesnar. An injury to Velasquez's right shoulder required surgical repair, and a planned matchup with top contender Junior Dos Santos was nixed, putting the new champion's first defense of his title on hold.
Dos Santos and Lesnar are currently featured as opposing coaches on Spike TV's "The Ultimate Fighter 13" series. The two heavyweights meet at June's UFC 131 event in Vancouver to determine the division's No. 1 contender.
At Friday's "Super 7" presentation at Toronto's Ricoh Coliseum, which featured all seven UFC champions on stage for the first time in company history, Velasquez said he's itching to get back to work.
"It's been hard to be out this long," Velasquez said. "For me, my dream job is to work out for a living, and for me to not be able to do that is tough."
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