In what should be the most brutal fight of the night, UFC Heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez will defend his title against Antonio Silva in the main event of Saturday night’s UFC 160 pay-per-view.
This is a rematch from UFC 146 that featured Velasquez brutalizing Silva from the start of the fight and bloodying the giant fighter. It ended just 3:36 into the first round when the referee had no other choice but to stop the assault.
Silva will be looking for redemption after being utterly embarrassed in the duo’s last meeting.
With Velasquez not wanting to lose his title again and Silva determined to redeem himself, this battle will be much better than fans are expecting. This won’t be a repeat of the fight we saw before; it will be much more interesting this time.
This battle could be just as bloody, though.
Cain Velasquez’s Keys to Victory
Velasquez avenged his only career loss in his previous fight against Junior Dos Santos, winning back the title the Brazilian fighter stole from him.
Now Velasquez is determined to keep the championship.
There has never been a question about Velasquez’s power and wrestling ability—one of the best strikers in the heavyweight division and arguably the best wrestler—but it was the stamina and conditioning he showed during his previous five-round decision victory over Dos Santos that proved just how well rounded the champion has become.
Silva has only faced a decision three times in his 22 fights, with the last coming in 2010. He only went past the first round seven times and has never gone five rounds in any fight.
Championship bouts are five rounds.
The heavy-handed Brazilian has a tendency of getting worn out over the course of longer fights—despite using his conditioning to beat Alistair Overeem—so if Velasquez cannot finish him early, expect the champion to drag this fight out using his wrestling to wear Silva down.
Once Silva is tired, the ground-and-pound prowess of Velasquez could turn this into a blood bath like the last time these two men met.
Antonio Silva’s Keys to Victory
Silva is a smart fighter with a great team, but he must understand the advantages Velasquez has and do his best to avoid mixing it up on the ground with the champion.
As the No. 1 contender learned in his last meeting with Velasquez, he’s too dangerous on the mat.
Since the Brazilian star took the defeat against the current champion at UFC 146, Silva has been on an absolute tear in the company. Not only did he dominate Travis Browne via first-round TKO, his upset KO win over Overeem earned him this chance to fight Velasquez Saturday.
Silva knows where his strengths are—his ability to strike and use his heavy hands in combinations to knock out his opponents early—and will come out at UFC 160 swinging for the fences.
There is no questioning that Velasquez has the better stamina, but if Silva attacks early and at a furious rate, the hope is that this fight won’t last long enough for conditioning to play a role in the outcome.
Silva knows that he is the underdog, and learning from the last fight against Velasquez, the challenger understands that his only real chance of beating the champion will be via knockout early in the fight.
If this becomes a wrestling match, it will get ugly for Silva.
Prediction: Cain Velasquez via Second-Round TKO
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