The UFC Heavyweight Championship once again resides on the mantle of Cain Velasquez.
To say that Velasquez beat Junior dos Santos last night would not do it justice. He overwhelmed, frustrated, bloodied and dominated the Brazilian to comfortably knock him off his perch and take back what he lost a little over 14 months ago.
Velasquez wasn’t the only one to grab meaningful and consequential victories at the MGM Grand Garden Arena that night though, and as always I’ll throw together the key matches to make for these prize fighting connoisseurs.
Cain Velasquez vs. Alistair Overeem-Antonio Silva winner
The soft-spoken Velasquez did all his talking in the cage tonight. Dos Santos fought until the bitter end but the energizer bunny wore him out with constant pressure and dozens of take downs to win every round and cement his status as king in the land of the behemoths. Overeem is serving a twelve month suspension that is almost up and the Dutch kickboxing star has proven to be a top-level heavyweight so it seems the biggest fight that can be made above 205-pounds right now is a meeting of these two giants.
Junior dos Santos vs. Daniel Cormier
Dos Santos lost his title and was beaten head-to-toe over the five-round affair. While this was a one-sided whooping you cannot deny that the Brazilian is probably going to meet Velasquez again simply because they are the cream of the crop. Cormier, the Strikeforce heavyweight king is set to enter the UFC in the New Year, if he chooses to tussle with the big boys instead of moving to 205-pounds a fight with the former champion would be fitting.
Jim Miller vs. Gilbert Melendez
Miller and Lauzon put on an instant classic. The canvas was soaked with blood, each of the supercharged 155-pound combatants battled exchanging punches, elbows, knees, kicks, submissions and everything in between in a fight that I wished never stopped but in the end Miller did enough to get his hand raised. After that ‘Fight of the year’ nomination and Miller’s already proven status as a top-level lightweight I feel it would be fireworks for him to welcome Stirkeforce champion Gilbert Melendez to the Octagon.
Joe Lauzon vs. Anthony Pettis-Donald Cerrone loser
The term ‘warrior’ is thrown around a lot these days but Lauzon showed a true warrior spirit in the evening’s co-feature – Cut within minutes and his forehead gashing with blood he woke up the Vegas crowd and didn’t give Miller a moment to breathe. The slick submission grappler showed a lot in defeat and I feel deserves a high-end opponent next so pitting him with the loser of Pettis & Cerrone next month would be an important fight to get someone back on the right track and probably just made you salivate thinking of that chaos.
Yushin Okami vs. Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza-Ed Herman winner
Rumors of Okami’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. While Alan Belcher gave him a few hiccups, it was essentially a one-way street with Okami flooring Belcher and doing almost anything he wanted with him for the duration of the fight. This leaves him in a strange type of purgatory – Can’t get back to a title fight yet will grapple wins away from most contenders – A fight with the winner of ‘Jacare’ and Herman next month would be a fitting fight for Okami and a win over the Japanese star would put them right into championship discussions.
Costa Philippou vs. Hector Lombard
Many, including myself discounted Philippou’s chances against former light-heavyweight Tim Boetsch but he physically and mentally broke ‘The Barbarian’ to firmly place his name in the hat for oppponents for Anderson Silva. With five in a row to his credit he needs another challenger to face and Lombard just thrashed Rousimar Palhares and is in a similar boat, makes sense to me.
Eddie Wineland vs. Renan Barao-Michael McDonald winner
Wineland has been arguably the most underrated fighter in the bantamweight division and last night he showed off his striking arsenal, with his long reach and great boxing Brad Pickett got a few licks in, but they were few and far between. With Dominick Cruz on hiatus, Barao and McDonald are set to battle for the interim crown and Wineland seems to be the perfect next fight for the winner.
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