The commercials promoting UFC 146 have been running for weeks now, and after showing Junior Dos Santos knocking out Cain Velasquez and winning the UFC heavyweight belt, the same question is asked.
Who can beat this guy?
Dos Santos has been a one-man wrecking machine ever since entering the Octagon back at UFC 90, taking out top contenders like Fabricio Werdum and Shane Carwin before he was able to put his right hand on Velasquez’s temple last November.
“Cigano’s” 68-second destruction of Velasquez has fans wondering if he will become the dominant heavyweight champion the UFC has sorely needed over the last decade, and his first title defense will be his chance to prove to the world that he’s as good as advertised.
After his original opponent, Alistair Overeem, was forced to drop out of the bout after being suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Dos Santos drew former world champion and Brazilian Ju-Jitsu expert Frank Mir as his first challenger.
Mir was certainly the most deserving replacement, having rattled off a nice set of victories over big names like Mirko Cro Cop and Roy Nelson over the last couple of years, and he is riding a ton of momentum after snapping Minotauro Nogueira’s arm in a kimura last December.
However, even the biggest Mir fans know that Saturday’s fight against Dos Santos is possibly the toughest of his career.
When a guy with heavy hands gets thrown into a fight where he is obviously over his head, we as fans hype the fight ourselves, giving everyone a “puncher’s chance” at winning a fight.
Unfortunately for Mir, he doesn’t even have that.
The odds that Mir will able to hang with Dos Santos on the feet are slim to none, and unless he is able to drag “Cigano” to the mat he won’t have much of a “grappler’s chance” either.
This is MMA, where upsets seem to happen twice as often as most of the other major sports, but the favorites are called favorites for a reason. Maybe Mir will walk into the Octagon and find a way to grab one of Dos Santos’ limbs and try to rip it off, or maybe he’ll land a big right hand and put the champion to sleep.
Just don’t count on it.
Dos Santos hasn’t shown any real weaknesses thus far, and now that’s he’s taken out a handful of the best fighters in the division the UFC is asking the right questions.
Who can beat this guy?
Maybe it’s Overeem, or maybe Velasquez just needs another chance.
Either way, it’s not Frank Mir.
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