The dust from UFC 155 has barely settled and already former heavyweight champ Junior dos Santos is aching for a rematch.
“I want [a rematch] now, soon,” he told Brazilian media outlet SporTV. “I won the first and he had a rematch. Now I lost and I want my rematch. I’m saying I want this fight. I’ll get my belt.”
The first fight dos Santos is referring to took place at the UFC’s inaugural event on FOX in November 2011. It took only 64 seconds for dos Santos to score a KO victory.
A different story unfolded at UFC 155. Dos Santos was thoroughly dominated by Velasquez. For the first time in the Octagon, the Brazilian was battered heavily and beaten. A post-fight photo shows just how ugly things got.
JDS chalks this loss up to using the wrong strategy.
[Velasquez] was better and deserved to win, but I used the wrong strategy. I was very worried about his entry in my legs and left face unprotected. So he hit me. When I was on the floor, I should have used more jiu-jitsu, I trained so much. But I tried to (get) back up, and it hurt me too, but on the ground [he] is very good, very strong. I did not connect any punches good, even. It was bad because I was feeling very well, did a great training camp, everything was just right.
Just watch the first round of the fight and you can see this failed strategy.
Velasquez rapaciously pursued takedowns to the point where dos Santos’ hands were down by his waist to try and ward off any takedown attempts. This enabled Velasquez to land a massive overhand right that floored dos Santos and irrevocably changed the pace and momentum of the fight.
Given that each man has a decisive victory over the other, a rubber match between the two men seems inevitable at some point.
However, Velasquez still has to fight the winner of Alistair Overeem vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, and it’s unlikely that JDS will be thrust back into contention so quickly after such a brutal loss.
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