Following his three-round domination of Shane Carwin at UFC 131, UFC commentator Joe Rogan told Junior dos Santos that he was in line to face UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez.
Dos Santos said that the opportunity was “Awesome, thank God for that.” Dos Santos then addressed Velasquez who was inside the Octagon, “Cain, I’m coming for you.” The two heavyweights then shook hands and Velasquez admitted that he was, “Excited to face somebody like this.”
At UFC 131 dos Santos walked through Carwin like it was a sparring session. He left the cage unmarked and in great spirits, while the bloody Carwin left for a trip to the emergency room. Carwin recently revealed the extent of the injuries he received from dos Santos via his website, “I was able to get another CT this week and the results showed a severely broken nose but no breaks to the cheek or orbital.”
Velasquez has not fought since defeating Brock Lesnar at UFC 121 in October 2010. Velasquez earned a first-round TKO over Lesnar, raining down powerful strikes that left Lesnar cowering against the fence.
The newly crowned champion went on the shelf shortly after the fight as he was forced to undergo surgery for a torn rotator cuff, an injury that was sustained during the fight with Lesnar.
Dos Santos recently spoke to Tatame.com about his upcoming bout for the UFC heavyweight title, “Velasquez is a guy who has great conditioning, so he’s a guy I want to go for the knockout or the submission. I can’t give him time to work on what he likes, the takedowns and doing the ground and pound game.”
Velasquez is an accomplished wrestler and he will look to use those skills to that dos Santos to the ground. Dos Santos does posses a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but he has never truly been tested on the ground as he has been able to keep his fights standing where he is at his best.
The challenger knows he has his work cut out for him when he fights for the title, “Velasquez is the number one on the heavyweight division,” dos Santos told Tatame. “It’ll be my greatest challenge ever.”
The LA Times reported that they had spoken to UFC chairman Lorenzo Fertitta who told them that the organization was looking to present the fight between Velasquez and dos Santos on November 19 from San Jose’s HP Pavilion.
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