Cain Velasquez fell to Junior dos Santos in his first title defense of his UFC heavyweight championship reign, but he will definitely come back stronger than he appeared in this fight.
Velasquez entered this fight with a few hurdles in front of him besides the overhand right of Junior dos Santos. Velasquez had a knee injury that hindered him during training (but then again, so did JDS). He also had shoulder surgery that he may or may not have been 100 percent recovered from during his training. These aren’t excuses, just the facts. With those facts, expect a healthier Velasquez in his next fight.
In his next fight, Velasquez will also be more relaxed and any ring rust that he may have had will have surely worn off by that time. His next fight won’t be a high-profile network television debut, so the pressure won’t be on as much. He’ll be able to get back to what he does best—beat people up in the octagon.
Fighters often say they learn more in a loss than they do in a win. If this is true, this is a great teaching point for the young superstar heavyweight. Stick to the game plan. For some reason, Velasquez thought he could stand and trade with the superior striker JDS. He was sadly mistaken and loss his belt because of this. You can rest assured that Velasquez won’t make that mistake ever again.
Velasquez will be back in the title mix; that’s a definite. He’s too talented not to be. How he will treat his second ascent is yet to be determined.
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