Cain Velasquez will defend his UFC Heavyweight Title against Junior Dos Santos on Fox this Saturday. I think there will be fireworks, but I don't consider either guy to be the elite striker a lot of others do.
Cain took out Brock Lesnar and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but Brock has bad striking defense and Big Nog has taken so much abuse over the years that it's hard to think of him as elite anymore.
Dos Santos had to go to decision with both Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin, both of whom have bad cardio. I know Nelson has good cardio for a man his size, but come on.
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| I never seen him smile outside the ring. |
I don't think there's any way that you could put Cain or Junior in the same striking category as Anderon Silva or Jon Jones. I don't mean that as an insult to either guy, I just keep hearing people talk about how great these guys are at striking. They're good for heavyweights, but they pale in comparison to good strikers in other divisions.
Having said all this, I do expect there to be a knockout stoppage of some sort, likely the ref jumping in to end the fight. I think Dos Santos is the better fighter, and that he'll get the victory. It's an interesting fight because Cain is a good wrestler and boxer while Dos Santos is a good Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter and boxer. The commonality there is boxing, and I think Dos Santos is a better boxer. Cain could take Dos Santos down, but then he might get submitted. I think this fight stays on the feet, and Dos Santos gets the win.
It won't surprise me if Cain gets the win, I think he's a very good fighter. The only way this fight would surprise me is if it goes to decision, then I would be stunned speechless. If this fight goes past two rounds, I will be very surprised.
The UFC chose this fight for a number of reasons. One, it's a title fight. Two, there are some fools out there who still dismiss the lighter divisions as being inferior to the heavyweight division, thus, a heavyweight title fight is seen as ideal in those peoples eyes. Three, this is an excellent way to introduce the UFC to new fans in as good a way as possible. This fight is essentially guaranteed to be exciting. This also ups the profile of both Cain and Junior.
All those reasons add up to the UFC making a good choice with this fight being the one to headline their first FOX show. I'll be watching, and I suspect millions more will be watching as well.
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| Saturday Nov. 12th on FOX |
