It’s a golden age for the UFC heavyweight division. The talent pool is deeper than it has ever been in company’s history – The reigning king in the land of the behemoths, Junior dos Santos gets his opportunity to cement his position as the top dog on Saturday night when he goes toe-to-toe with the man he took the title from, Cain Velasquez.
It was sort of fitting that Velasquez and dos Santos, two of the most fascinating and brutal wrecking machines in the history of the UFC heavyweight division met on the biggest stage for the UFC’s coming out party on FOX’s main stage.
It was a big deal, this heavily-ridiculed sport once dubbed ‘human cockfighting’ from United States Senator John McCain shed the barbaric blood-sport image to be mentioned in the same light as the NFL and be treated like a big fish on a major platform.
8.8 million Sets of eyeballs were planted in front of their widescreen entertainment machines, many of which were witnessing this sport for the first time. The UFC wanted to make an impact in their first step on national television but I don’t think they wanted the impact to rattle Velasquez and send him crumbling to the mat within 64 seconds.
My phone lit up as friends and family members, few of which were loyal fight enthusiasts were gobsmacked at the gargantuan heavyweight that made such short work of the fighter that most considered to be the cream of the 265-pound crop.
Dos Santos, the gentle giant with a real mean streak asserted his dominance that night and he showed even more dominance in his maiden title deference thrashing two-time UFC titlist Frank Mir in less than two rounds. Mir was unable to get the fight to the floor, and once that was clear it wasn’t a matter of if, but when the king would knock his lights out.
On that same evening, less than an hour before his Brazilian foe, Velasquez stained the canvas in the MGM Grand Garden Arena with the blood of Strikeforce import Antonio ‘Big Foot’ Silva. The American Kickboxing Academy stand-out showed an unmatched blood lust in his shellacking of Silva with an assault that would have him imprisoned if it took place outside of a sanctioning body.
It was a no-brainer that these two needed to settle the score and finally, a year and change after their first clash the two best fighters in the division will lock horns once again. Most industry insiders are laying their faith behind the Brazilian to make history repeat itself for one sole reason on Saturday night – The astonishing power in the right-hand of dos Santos.
‘Cigano’ is an exceptional striker. It took just eight significant strikes to put Velasquez down for the count and with his top-notch boxing skills he can really put a hurting on an opponent. Whether they were stopped early or survive to the final bell, each of his adversaries in the UFC have taken significant pummelling’s from his high-octane striking arsenal.
In a straight boxing match, without pillows on their hands the advantage definitely goes towards dos Santos but especially after the outcome last November that game plan won’t be on the agenda of the former king.
Don’t get me wrong, Velasquez is a fine striker in his own right with a more versatile arsenal than the heavyweight kingpin but he desperately needs to avoid that atomic bomb of a right-hand. Being a proficient leg kicker the Mexican-American can create distance and potentially open doors to get into the clinch battle or a take down.
Whether or not Velasquez can get the fight to the ground will likely be the story of this fight, but that won’t be an easy task. Former interim UFC champion Shane Carwin is the lone fighter to get dos Santos off his feet and even then it was short-lived before dos Santos got back to the feet.
Velasquez is unequivocally the best wrestler that the power-puncher has faced though. A two-time NCAA Division I All-American for Arizona State University, he has been wrestling since his youth and has seamlessly transitioned his skill set to fit perfectly in an MMA atmosphere.
Inquiring minds are certainly interested to see what takes place if this fight does take place on the mat for a substantial amount of time. The insubordinate amount of punishment Velasquez unleashed with his ground-and-pound in his last fight makes me think that dos Santos doesn’t want to fool around on the ground for an extended period of time.
The interesting nugget there definitely is the submission game, while both men’s trainers assure us their ground game is exceptional until we’ve seen it we cannot really say for certain one way or another.
Both combatants have similar levels of expertise in jiu-jitsu. Junior has a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under his friend, trainer, mentor and future UFC Hall of Famer Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Cain has a brown belt in Geurilla Jiu-Jitsu under well-travelled grappler Dave Camarillo but neither have initiated nor defended a submission hold to force their opponents to surrender in the UFC.
Velasquez is known among his peers at AKA for having unheard of cardiovascular fitness for a man his size, being able to apply pressure and keep a pace that training partners half his size cannot compare to. The fitness level of dos Santos has not been abysmal by any stretch of the imagination but he has slowed down when he has gone to the judges’ score cards against Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin but interestingly, neither has been 25 minutes in a fight.
In fact, despite being deemed a cardio machine Velasquez has only gone to the points once in a three-round victory over Cheick Kongo, having finished all of his other dance partners with a knockout so if this one goes into the deep waters it’s not certain what will happen.
Two friendly, approachable, soft-spoken giants will morph into devastating smashing machines on December 29 and once again I urge you, don’t blink when these two duke it out for all the marbles in the land of the giants.
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