Cain Velasquez is one of the hottest fighters in MMA right now.With a well-rounded style in the cage and the perfect personality to captivate fans outside it, he is always somebody worth making the effort to try and watch. That said, there are still so…
Cain Velasquez is one of the hottest fighters in MMA right now.
With a well-rounded style in the cage and the perfect personality to captivate fans outside it, he is always somebody worth making the effort to try and watch.
That said, there are still some questions regarding Velasquez. With only eleven career fights, his limits have not yet been tested and it is still left to be seen how great he is capable of being.
While his domination of Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva should be downright scary for anybody near the top of the heavyweight division, this is still a great time to analyze where is as a fighter, as a brand and as a former champion. Shall we?
Somebody made the biggest statement at UFC 146 and it wasn’t Junior dos Santos. It was former champion, the guy Dos Santos defeated for the title, Cain Velasquez.Velasquez looked like an absolute monster on Saturday night. He took Antonio Silva to the …
Somebody made the biggest statement at UFC 146 and it wasn’t Junior dos Santos. It was former champion, the guy Dos Santos defeated for the title, Cain Velasquez.
Velasquez looked like an absolute monster on Saturday night. He took Antonio Silva to the ground early and went to work.
I mean, really, he worked Silva over by pummeling him until Silva couldn’t take any more. Blood was gushing everywhere.
This victory will go a long way in returning Velasquez to the top of the mountain.
It was exactly what Velasquez needed to do in order to get a possible title shot against Dos Santos within the year.
According to Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, UFC president Dana White mentioned how the two will fight by the end of the year.
“The significance can’t be lost on White, who confirmed there would be a rematch between dos Santos and Velasquez for the belt later this year. Given the beating dos Santos put on Mir and the bloody mess that Velasquez made of Silva, that fight should be a massive seller.”
If the two did step inside the Octagon again, things will be different. If Velasquez can get Dos Santos on the ground, it will be a long night for the champion.
Velasquez’s victory Saturday night was a reminder of just how great this guy can be inside the cage. It was a demolishing victory from the very beginning. Silva knew what was coming, but still couldn’t stop it.
We are watching a man on a mission to regain his title. Whenever these two superstars lock heads again, don’t be surprised if you see a different outcome.
After sitting out a few months thanks to injury and a late opponent change, Junior dos Santos finally had his first UFC heavyweight title defense at UFC 146. Dos Santos met former two-time UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir, who filled in for the …
After sitting out a few months thanks to injury and a late opponent change, Junior dos Santos finally had his first UFC heavyweight title defense at UFC 146.
Dos Santos met former two-time UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir, who filled in for the suspended Alistair Overeem.
Like many predicted, Dos Santos was able to use his quick and precise boxing to out-strike and eventually knockout Mir in the second round.
Although Mir did land a few leg kicks and counter-strikes, none of them seemed to phase Dos Santos.
Mir’s only hope was to get the fight to the ground.
But after Dos Santos avoided a leg lock attempt early in the fight, Mir did not really have an answer for him.
As Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan stated in the video above, Dos Santos had excellent takedown defense and footwork.
With the win, Dos Santos is now 15-1 (9-0 in the UFC). The win was his 11th by knockout.
Mir, on the other hand, is now 16-6 with each of his losses coming by knockout.
Mir has the most heavyweight wins in UFC history and is a two-time champion.
But Mir has lost the last three title fights he’s been in. Although he is still a great heavyweight, Mir may have had his last chance at a title belt.
With Dos Santos as champion, he already has wins over many of the top heavyweights in the division, including Roy Nelson, Stefan Struve and Cain Velasquez.
Thanks to his combination of great striking and defense, there may not be anybody who can defeat the champ for a long time.
Junior Dos Santos retained his heavyweight title against Frank Mir at UFC 146 on Saturday, proving that he is the top fighter in the heavyweight division.Dos Santos avoided playing to Mir’s advantage and stayed on his feet for the entire match, capital…
Junior Dos Santos retained his heavyweight title against Frank Mir at UFC 146 on Saturday, proving that he is the top fighter in the heavyweight division.
Dos Santos avoided playing to Mir’s advantage and stayed on his feet for the entire match, capitalizing on his superior boxing skills to score a TKO at the 3:04 mark in the second round. Dos Santos showed that he is not only the most physically gifted heavyweight, but that he is one of the most intelligent strategists of the division by being able to avoid going to the canvas with Mir.
Even when it appeared that JDS would be wise to jump on Mir, who had fallen on his back after a takedown attempt, the Brazilian sensation let his opponent rise to his feet instead of going for the kill shot early. Mir tried time and time again to close the distance between the two, but Dos Santos would have none of it. He landed all different types of punches on his punchless opponent, working both the head and body with lightning-fast strikes.
Mir is no slouch either. He came into this fight on a three-match winning streak, knocking out Mirko Filipovic with a knee, beating Roy Nelson via unanimous decision and making Antonio Nogueira double-jointed with a kimura.
Despite Mir’s past accomplishments, Dos Santos made him look like an amateur in UFC 146. Mir hardly landed anything other than a few leg kicks, and Dos Santos hardly missed anything. Body shots, head shots, face shots, hooks, jabs, uppercuts, counter punches, you name it, Dos Santos landed it. He was almost able to finish it off before the conclusion of the first round, unloading a flurry of quick punches on Mir in the closing seconds before Mir went for the leg.
In between rounds, the doctor asked Mir where he was. Mir named the wrong casino. The sheer power that is behind Dos Santos’ strikes is something to behold. At 6’4″, 240 pounds, a fighter shouldn’t be able to land punches like he does with such precision and timing.
You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in the world who can beat Dos Santos right now, as he put on one of the best performances of his career at UFC 146 and struck down yet another star in the process.
He’s beaten Gabriel Gonzaga, Roy Nelson, Shane Carwin, Cain Velasquez and now Frank Mir in his last five fights.
The most impressive takeaway from the fight was Dos Santos’ ability to exhibit self-control through the entire match. He could have easily gotten too eager to finish Mir and jumped on him the first two times he went to the canvas, but he knew that he had much less of a chance at victory on the mat.
His planning for this match was so impeccable that he motioned for Mir to get back up the two times he went down. It wasn’t until the third time Mir went down, when Dos Santos knew Mir was seeing cobwebs, that he punched on his challenger and forced referee Herb Dean to stop the fight.
This was an impressive showing by Dos Santos and we are obviously witness to the best heavyweight fighter in the UFC building on his legendary career, dominating great fighter after great fighter in the process.
UFC 146 was arguably the most important night in Jason “Mayhem” Miller’s career, and it wound up being probably his most disappointing.”Mayhem” needed a victory over CB Dollaway in order to keep his job with the UFC, and he was unfortunately unable to …
UFC 146 was arguably the most important night in Jason “Mayhem” Miller’s career, and it wound up being probably his most disappointing.
“Mayhem” needed a victory over CB Dollaway in order to keep his job with the UFC, and he was unfortunately unable to earn it, losing via unanimous decision.
In the first round, Miller suffered from a knee injury, and although he was able to continue fighting, it stopped him from preventing takedowns and from effectively using his jiu-jitsu.
It might have been possible for Miller to keep his job with the UFC, given that his loss was clearly influenced by the injury, but according to UFC President Dana White “some crazy s— happened backstage” involving Miller, and he has been cut from the promotion.
The details of exactly what happened backstage are yet to be confirmed.
So, fresh from his release from the UFC, what’s next for “Mayhem” Miller?
Retirement seems like a big possibility.
Miller did say prior to his fight with Dollaway that he would retire from MMA if he lost, though he was sure he was going to win at that point. Outside of fighting, “Mayhem” has hosted his own television show, Bully Beatdown, so there are other career paths he could explore.
If Miller wants to keep fighting, he could always go back to DREAM. He has spent a lot of his career fighting in Japan, and the fans over there would likely welcome him back.
If he’s interested in staying in North America, Miller could see about signing with Strikeforce. Goodness knows their middleweight division isn’t exactly overflowing with contenders.
There was a lot of pressure on Junior dos Santos heading into UFC 146.He was defending his UFC Heavyweight Championship for the first time, looking to avenge his friend and mentor Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and doing so against one of the greatest heavy…
There was a lot of pressure on Junior dos Santos heading into UFC 146.
He was defending his UFC Heavyweight Championship for the first time, looking to avenge his friend and mentor Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and doing so against one of the greatest heavyweights of all-time, Frank Mir.
It was a big test for the champion, and he passed with flying colors.
Many expected that if dos Santos could keep the fight standing, it would be a short night for Mir, and that’s exactly what happened. The challenger was unable to bring the fight to the ground, and dos Santos battered him from the opening bell into the second round, where the champion finished the fight.
It was an excellent performance from dos Santos, and it’s clear this young fighter has the potential to be a great champion.
Here’s five things we learned about Junior dos Santos…
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