UFC 160 may be headlined by Cain Velasquez and Antonio Silva, but the Junior dos Santos and Mark Hunt co-main event is much more intriguing.
We’ve seen Velasquez vs. Silva before. The champion battered Bigfoot en route to a first-round TKO, and there isn’t much to indicate that Silva can do much to make the rematch any more interesting.
Dos Santos vs. Hunt, however, offers plenty of intrigue. Dos Santos is the much more skilled fighter. His boxing is among the best in the UFC regardless of division, and he’s a former champion with only one loss in his time with the UFC.
Hunt, on the other hand, is just 9-7 in his career and relies on unsettling power to win fights. Dos Santos is the heavy favorite for good reason, but this is the heavyweight division. Anything can happen.
Here are the biggest questions surrounding the fight.
Can Mark Hunt Land the Big One?
On paper, dos Santos wins this one easily.
He uses his length really well, has power punching of his own to keep Hunt honest and holds pretty much every advantage you could think of over the stocky Hunt. But all it takes is one punch to change the dynamics of a fight.
After all, that’s how JDS won the title in the first place—one well-timed overhand right to Velasquez’s head.
Hunt has tremendous power and covers a lot of ground for his size. Dos Santos loves to stand and box with opponents and that’s a dangerous proposition. Can Hunt time up dos Santos and continue his magical run?
Will JDS Use His Jiu-Jitsu?
You wouldn’t know it from watching him fight, but dos Santos has a black belt in jiu-jitsu.
He usually prefers to stand up and bludgeon his opponents with his precision boxing, but this might be the time that he wants to put those ground skills to work.
To put it simply, Hunt’s submission defense is terrible. He’s been submitted six times in his 16 professional fights and even has a loss to Sean McCorkle by armbar—yes, Sean McCorkle.
While dos Santos has the ability to stand and box with anyone, the safest path to victory may be taking Hunt down and looking for the submission.
A submission victory would also show that dos Santos has added to his ground game. That would make a rematch with Velasquez much more intriguing.
Will Either Man Outshine Velasquez?
In all likelihood the winner of this fight is headed for a title fight against Cain Velasquez—unless the champ falters against Antonio Silva.
Regardless of what happens, the UFC hype machine will do a great job of selling the matchup, but will JDS or Hunt help them out?
Fighting directly before the champion can be a blessing or a curse for the future challenger. A great performance from either guy and they’ll look ready to take on Velasquez, a lackluster performance and there won’t be much momentum for the challenger.
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