Junior dos Santos is the new UFC heavyweight champion.
For months and months fans looked forward to the consensus top-two heavyweights in the world, Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos, squaring off in the Octagon.
Tonight, this dream fight became a reality, but that reality was short-lived.
Most believed that if dos Santos was to win this fight, it would be an early knockout, and that is exactly what happened.
Velasquez decided to test his striking skills against dos Santos’ in the first round and he paid for it—dearly.
After a little bit more than a minute, dos Santos landed a big overhand right that shattered Velasquez’ equilibrium and left him nearly defenseless.
From these Junior was able to land some ground and pound and end the fight.
That’s eight straight wins in the UFC for dos Santos—all fights he won using his boxing.
Given that his striking seems to be the only thing he needs to demolish top level fighters, could Junior dos Santos be the best striker in MMA?
Possibly, but we won’t know until we see him fight Alistair Overeem.
Without question, dos Santos is not the most well-rounded striker in MMA.
He is mostly a boxer and does not utilize kicks and knees nearly as much as some other fighters.
Before we say that dos Santos is the best striker in MMA, or even in the heavyweight division, we need to see if his boxing is good enough to trump someone with elite and well-rounded striking.
The perfect man to test this against is Overeem.
‘Reem is a K-1 Grand Prix winner and arguably the most well-rounded striker in the sport.
He is expert at utilizing not only punches, but knees and kicks, also.
If dos Santos can take Overeem on and knock him out, then it might be fair to say that he is the best striker in MMA, but until then, we don’t know.
Best striker? Perhaps not.
Best pure boxing? I’d say so.
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