Junior “Cigano” dos Santos is clearly the second-best heavyweight in the UFC, but it may not be long before he’s back challenging for the title he once held. On Saturday at UFC 166 at the Toyota Center in Houston, dos Santos was dominated again by the champion, Cain Velasquez.
The bout was the rubber match in a trilogy that has separated the two men from every other heavyweight in the UFC. Cigano is 15-1 against fighters not named Cain Velasquez in his career. His only other loss came in 2007 to Joaquim Ferreira before he made the move to the UFC.
He has simply dominated most every other heavyweight on the scene. Fabricio Werdum is the man in line to challenge Velasquez next, but dos Santos stopped him when he made his UFC debut in 2008. Cigano owns wins over many of the fighters who hope to ascend to a level where they can be called serious contenders.
Along with the win over Werdum, dos Santos has also defeated Stefan Struve, Gabriel Gonzaga, Roy Nelson and Frank Mir. Based on this impressive resume, it seems dos Santos shouldn’t have to go to the back of the line of heavyweight contenders.
In fact, if he were to face and defeat the winner of the Travis Browne-Josh Barnett battle that is scheduled for UFC 168 card in Las Vegas, dos Santos would deserve another shot to regain the title.
Fans may frown at a fourth meeting with Velasquez, but what other heavyweight would be more deserving?
If fans were forced to sit through a second Velasquez-Antonio Silva bout, the UFC community would have to be able to stomach another dos Santos-Velasquez scrap. That is of course assuming Velasquez defeats Werdum when and if the two men officially sign to face each other.
If Werdum upsets Velasquez, then things could be made easier for UFC head man Dana White. Velasquez would likely get a rematch and a new rivalry could be born. Those dynamics could force dos Santos to wait even longer for another shot.
In any case, Cigano is just 29 years old. Based on the way he’s handled most every opponent, he’ll almost certainly be back on the UFC heavyweight title scene before too long.
Record references per Sherdog.com
Follow me for musings on MMA, boxing, the WWE, the NBA and sports video games.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com