ANAHEIM, Calif. — On the night that the UFC went Hollywood, Junior Dos Santos delivered a Rocky-like performance.
Well, maybe not exactly.
Despite walking out to the Octagon to the theme song of the transcendent boxing flick of the 70s, he wasn’t that much of an underdog against UFC heavyweight champion and formerly undefeated Cain Velasquez in the main event of the UFC’s first show on FOX.
After all, the challenger had yet to taste defeat in the Octagon himself.
He still hasn’t, thanks to a well-placed and perfectly-timed overhand right that downed the title-holder and with a few more strikes he was crowned the new “baddest man on the planet.”
Dos Santos came into a somewhat hostile territory in the Honda Center in Anaheim. But by the time he was on his knees in triumphant jubilation, the crowd was on their feet in exhilaration.
From that point of view, it was a very successful first ever UFC fight on live on primetime network television.
Was it all that the UFC and FOX, who signed a seven-year partnership earlier this year that doesn’t even officially begin in January, could’ve asked for with their “teaser” show Saturday night?
UFC president Dana White definitely thinks so.
“I said before this event it could go five rounds, or it could go 20 seconds, but either way, it would be a great fight,” White said at the post-fight press conference. “And it was.”
As adrenaline-pumping as a crushing, out-of-the-blue knockout is however, it was Ben Henderson and Clay Guida who stole the show for those in attendance, putting on a three-round, fight-of-the-night scrap which was a lot closer than the judges scores would indicate.
Henderson was awarded the unanimous decision, with only one judge giving one round to Guida, and with it he earned a shot at Frankie Edgar’s lightweight title, which White confirmed will headline the UFC’s next show in Japan in February.
Luckily for Canadian fans, viewers were able to watch the entire Henderson-Guida undercard/co-main event fight on Sportsnet thanks to it being able to carry the international feed of the event. Viewers in the U.S. weren’t so fortunate — all they got was the Velasquez-Dos Santos bout, so FOX’s complete one-hour special consisted of just over a minute of live action.
The finish was certainly better than a five-round snoozefest would’ve been. But a mere 64 seconds is not a lot to showcase to the millions of viewers tuning in for the first time.
For the longtime MMA fan, Dos Santos again showcased the quickness and power in his strikes. He said he was gifted with heavy hands.
“My teammates would tell me that and they would say, ‘Hey, watch out where you go with your hands because they’re very, very heavy,” Dos Santos said. “You’re born with that. I’m happy to be born with heavy hands.”
It was a little disappointing not to see the fight go a little longer. I wonder what would’ve happened if Velasquez had been able to get it to the ground. Instead, he seemed content to keep the fight on the feet.
White too said he was surprised Velasquez didn’t shoot in and try to take the fight down early and instead stayed in his range and banged with Dos Santos, where everybody knows is the challenger’s strength.
Velasquez said that wasn’t his intention. He was just trying to fight smart.
“It was my fault, I didn’t pressure enough, which was the game plan,” Velasquez said. “The plan was to establish the punches and kicks, and if the takedown was there, take it but not force anything, because he has great defence. I wanted to put pressure on him, but I didn’t do that tonight so it’s frustrating.”
On the flipside, it couldn’t have gone any better for Dos Santos, who followed his game plan to a tee.
“My game plan was to fight standing, looking for kicks,” Dos Santos said. “I tried to use my power at the beginning of the fight because I’m 100 per cent at that moment and it worked today.
“Man that was a good moment for me … a little town in Brazil now has a UFC heavyweight champion.”
Whether or not the UFC could have used a little more action in the fight that was thrust on the biggest stage Saturday, it was still a good moment for the organization and the sport.
This was just a tease. It may not yet get new viewers to MMA to fork out the money for a pay-per-view event in the near future. But maybe it will get them intrigued enough to watch the next event on FOX, which will have a full slate of fights. And hopefully, a lot more action.
NOTES: Along with Henderson and Guida, the other winners of the $65,000 fight bonus were Dos Santos for knockout of the night and Ricardo Lamas for his second-round submission of Cub Swanson. Lamas was being outstruck before getting a takedown and tapping Swanson to an arm-triangle … The event was filled with plenty of pomp and circumstance. In the backyard of Disneyland and a short drive from Hollywood, the UFC had a red carpet procession where MMA fighters, UFC and otherwise, including champions Georges St-Pierre, Jon Jones and Dominick Cruz, walked along the same line as Hollwyood stars such as Mickey Rourke, Howie Mandel and Ron Perlman of the FX show “Sons of Anarchy.” It was a new experience for at least one fighter. “The carpet feels kind of funny under my feet, I’m used to a canvas,” Cruz said … Ducks forward Ryan Getzlaf, who plays his home games at the arena was also there, as well as former New York Giants defensive end and NFL on FOX analyst Michael Strahan, who said that NFL insider and part-time MMA columnist Jay Glazer got him into MMA.