Cain Velasquez opens up Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva – Photo by Donald Miralle via UFC.com
A pair of big heavyweight bouts were announced on Tuesday night’s ‘UFC Tonight’ program as UFC champ Cain Velasquez (11-1) defends his title in a rematch with Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva (18-4) while former title holder Junior ‘Cigano’ dos Santos (15-2) takes on Alistair ‘The Reem’ Overeem (36-12).
UFC president Dana White confirmed the news with reporter Ariel Helwani who announced the news on the Fuel TV program Tuesday night for this May’s UFC 160 event.
UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot II is expected to take place on May 25, 2013 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event will be the second straight Memorial Day event featuring key heavyweight matchups like last years UFC 146 event in Las Vegas.
Velasquez regained the title last December after defeating JDS in a rematch at UFC 155. The champ used his wrestling to dominate the Brazilian over five rounds to win a unanimous decision. Previous to that match, Velasquez faced ‘Bigfoot’ Silva at UFC 146, ending things via TKO in the first round after opening up a big cut on Silva’s forehead.
Since that loss to Velasquez, Silva has earned two key victories first stopping Travis Browne this past October in the main event of UFC on FX 5 by TKO, and then most recently by stopping Alistair Overeem at UFC 156. Against ‘The Reem’ Silva was able to turn things around in the third round landing punch after punch to Overeem’s jaw before putting him to the canvas.
Dos Santos will look to get back into title contention with a win over Overeem after losing the title to Velasquez last December. Previous to the defeat he had earned ten straight victories, nine of which took place inside the Octagon. His most recent win came in May of last year at UFC 146 when he stopped Frank Mir by TKO.
Overeem saw a long undefeated streak dating back to the fall of 2007 end as well following the loss to ‘Bigfoot’ earlier this month. ‘The Reem’ had been on a twelve fight undefeated run which included winning his Octagon debut in December 2011 by finishing Brock Lesnar via first round TKO.