After being forced to withdraw from a pair of pay-per-view main events earlier this year due to injury, Cain Velasquez and Daniel Cormier admit a change in training methods was needed.

Velasquez, a former UFC heavyweight champion, has been plagued by injuries over the years and forced to withdraw from numerous fights. The most recent was a title rematch with Fabricio Werdum in February. Cormier, meanwhile, pulled out of a fight for the first time in his career against Jon Jones at UFC 197 in April.

Their training base, American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif., has been a target for criticism when it comes to fighter injuries. And with Velasquez (13-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC) set to fight Travis Browne (18-3-1 MMA, 9-3-1 UFC) on the UFC 200 main card, and Cormier (17-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) set to rematch Jones (22-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) in the event’s headliner, both men knew adjustments had to be made.

“Right after Cain got hurt, he talked to me and he goes, ‘We don’t want to say “old,” but us experienced guys, maybe we should reevaluate our training a little bit,'” Cormier told MMAjunkie. “It made me take a hard look at myself, as it did Cain. We both had to take a hard look at ourselves, as we had to prepare for these new fights. It was a blessing in disguise.”

UFC 200 takes place July 9 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.

Velasquez said he hasn’t exactly stopped the hard training, but instead tweaked his schedule to give more days off for rest and recovery. He said that’s helped greatly and allowed him to have the energy to put in the necessary work so he and Cormier are prepared to fight at UFC 200.

“A lot of people don’t see behind the scenes what we do to get ready for fights,” Velasquez said. “They just see fight day, and we go out there and fight. But there’s a lot of hard work that needs to happen beforehand, and we’ve been criticized for sparring too hard. But hey, that’s the best way to get ready for a fight, we think, and it’s proven.”

Watch the full video above for more from Cormier and Velasquez ahead of UFC 200.

For more on UFC 200, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.