The trilogy is on.
When Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos met for the first time in the Octagon, the Brazilian heavyweight didn’t need much time to snatch the belt from his American foe. One of the common themes after they fought was that these two were destined to have a rivalry and not just a trilogy, but perhaps potentially meet one another five times in their careers.
In the rematch, Velasquez won to regain the title. This past weekend, he successfully defended it against Antonio (Bigfoot) Silva in the main event, which lasted all but 81 seconds. When Velasquez fought Silva one year ago to the day, he dominated and bloodied the human behemoth in 3:21. In the timespan of less than one round, the pride of many Latino fans defeated Silva twice.
And in the UFC 160 co-main event, JDS knocked out Mark Hunt with a devastating wheel kick setting up the trilogy bout many were simply waiting for father time to confirm. It’s official now, but will it be the last time these two fight?
If Velasquez wins, that could be the last time he faces JDS — it would likely be quite some time before the UFC would grant the Brazilian another opportunity to fight for the strap. But if dos Santos wins the belt, that would allow Velasquez the opportunity to work his way back for a rematch, likely by winning just one bout against a top tier opponent.
Time will tell, but neither scenario will surprise many and no matter how the rivalry unfolds, it will definitely be a fun journey to see how it eventually plays out.
The Grant stamp
Cole Harbour, N.S.’s TJ Grant has officially proven he is in a class with very few men. His incredible, awe inspiring defeat of Gray Maynard was a sight to behold. His walk up to the Octagon was different than every other bout of his career. When he got to his corner, he began pacing back and forth, mumbling words of reinforcement to himself while counting the seconds away before he could unleash his inner fury.
What unfolded was sheer madness as Maynard came out swinging for the fences, landing hard punches to Grant’s chin. To wit, Grant mocked Maynard by asking him to continue trying to knock him out. He moved forward, invading “The Bully’s” space while Maynard continued his attempts to stop the possessed Canuck.
In what was forecasted to be a three-round war, the fight lasted all of 2:07. Grant unleashed a hurricane of leather, stopping the former two-time top contender and stopping him in devastating fashion. Grant did what no man — not Frankie Edgar (three times), Clay Guida, Kenny Florian, Jim Miller, Denis Siver or Nate Diaz — could do, and that’s finish Maynard in the first round. The only man to stop Maynard was Edgar, and that was in the fourth round of their trilogy bout.
To say Grant did what many thought was impossible is an understatement. No one but Grant and his camp believed this could be humanly possible. Maynard had a date with champion Ben Henderson; instead, Henderson’s new dance partner will be the blue-collar Canuck.
An interesting footnote to all of this was the reaction from the international media, many of whom were in attendance and approached me after the bout, with others doing so online via Twitter. Being a Canadian covering UFC events can sometimes be a fun, yet inferior experience, as there is not one Canadian fighter my peers believe is worthy of defeating international competition.
When Georges St-Pierre fought Nick Diaz, Carlos Condit, Jake Shields, Josh Koscheck (the rematch), Thiago Alves, BJ Penn, John Fitch and Matt Serra (rematch again), I was berated by many on the technical virtues of how GSP was going to get smashed, embarrassed and so much more. We all know how those predictions turned out.
This time around, the common theme I was showered with was how much of “a beast” Grant is, and “your boy is going to destroy Benson.” I took it all in, as many of my media pals gave Grant no chance at defeating Maynard, but my how the cookie of forecasting and public opinion has crumbled. Grant has arrived, and is in a class with only two other lightweights — the champ, and Gilbert Melendez. Truth be told, I believe Josh Thompson is right there as well, but we’ll see what happens in his next bout.
With Grant being the seventh Canadian to secure himself a UFC title shot (the others being John Alessio, Carlos Newton, St-Pierre, David Loiseau, Patrick Cote and Mark Hominick), he hopes to be only the third to win a UFC title (joining GSP and Newton) and the first at 155 pounds.
The anticipated title fight against Henderson is expected to take place either in August or September, and one question will haunt me until Bruce Buffer officially announces the winner: will those international media members who came up to me afterwards be right or wrong with their bold predictions?
Most Canadian MMA fans are hoping they will be correct, as Grant becoming a UFC champion would help take the sport of MMA to whole new level in the Great White North.