Junior dos Santos is currently on the most dominant win streak in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s heavyweight division, yet his toughest challenge as champion will be to beat a man whom he has already defeated, in just over a minute no less.
If, and that is a big if, anyone is going to put a halt to dos Santos’ win streak anytime soon it will be former heavyweight kingpin Cain Velasquez and no one else.
These two men are miles ahead of the rest of the heavyweights in the sport and their performances at UFC 146 cemented that, as they both put away world-class opponents with relative ease.
JDS is coming off a dismantling of former two-time UFC champion Frank Mir. The Brazilian displayed incredible hand speed, accuracy and power, and he did so without letting his tenacity and yearning for the KO undermine his methodical approach to picking apart his foe. It was a flawless performance.
Velasquez, meanwhile, turned former Strikeforce contender Antonio Silva’s face into a bloody mess. He cut Bigfoot’s forehead with an elbow and proceeded to land relentless ground-and-pound, not letting the sight of the plasma or its iron-like taste faze him until referee Josh Rosenthal was forced to step in. Also a flawless performance.
In fact many of Velasquez’s bouts have been near-flawless. His wins over Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Ben Rothwell made it seem like the 29-year-old Californian would be at the top of the heavyweight mountain for years to come.
Velasquez is 10-1 with nine of his wins coming by knockout or TKO. He has heavyweight strength, lightweight speed, elite wrestling skill, knockout power, and his cardio is off the charts, literally. He has displayed all of these skills in his previous fights and possesses the ability to defeat any athlete in the sport.
The only fight in which Velasquez was not thoroughly dominant was his encounter with the current champ back in November when he lost his belt after getting knocked out in 64 seconds.
Now, if you take into consideration that Velasquez was coming off a 13-month layoff following shoulder surgery, one could easily make the argument that he was not 100 per cent for his fight with JDS. In fairness, dos Santos — who required knee surgery after he won the belt — was not 100 per cent either.
Leading up to UFC 146, the always stoic Velasquez was extra stone-faced and focused. You could tell by his demeanor as Bruce Buffer was introducing him that he was leaving the Octagon with a victory. And even Silva didn’t have a say in the matter.
It seems like losing his title could end up being the most beneficial thing to happen to the Mexican-American so far throughout his career. We’ve seen this with athletes like welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and lightweight champion Benson Henderson, who lose their titles only to bounce back stronger than ever.
When GSP was knocked out by Matt Serra at UFC 69 in 2007 shockwaves were sent through the MMA world as it was arguably the biggest upset in MMA history. Two things came out of that fight: it proved that anyone can get caught on any given day; and, by St-Pierre’s own admission, it was best thing that could have happened to the French Canadian.
Henderson lost his WEC title to Anthony Pettis in the main event of the last ever World Extreme Cagefighting event. But Henderson used the loss as motivation and since coming over to the UFC he has gone on a torrid win streak that has seen him become champion once again.
Velasquez, who said he doesn’t feel right not having the belt, has that same goal. He is a cerebral and ultra-focused fighter that will learn from what he did wrong in his first fight with JDS.
It’s not a question of whether a rematch between these two men occurs, but more of how soon the UFC can put it together.
At Saturday’s post-fight press conference UFC president Dana White said he really likes a rematch between JDS and Cain. If you read between the lines, this means the rematch will almost certainly happen as soon as possible unless either man suffers an injury.
Now, it was revealed Tuesday that Velasquez needs an x-ray of his left hand and if it’s broken he could be out until November. But, if both men came out of UFC 146 unscathed the timing would be ideal for these prodigious pugilists to headline the UFC’s scheduled show at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on Sept. 22.
Doesn’t UFC 152: Dos Santos vs. Velasquez 2 have a nice ring to it?