This coming Saturday at UFC 155 in Las Vegas, the UFC heavyweight title picture will close out a full year of mixed martial arts when champion Junior dos Santos faces Cain Velasquez.Their first match wasn’t under the best of circumstances, as a lengthy…
This coming Saturday at UFC 155 in Las Vegas, the UFC heavyweight title picture will close out a full year of mixed martial arts when champion Junior dos Santos faces Cain Velasquez.
Their first match wasn’t under the best of circumstances, as a lengthy build-up to the UFC’s single-fight event on Fox ended in an anti-climatic first-round flash knockout.
Hopefully, this rematch will provide a more complex victory for either fighter this time around, especially now that Velasquez is entering the bout fully recovered from an ACL injury that threatened to sideline him in November last year.
With that in mind, here’s five interesting key facts that UFC fans should keep in mind during the lead-up to the titanic heavyweight rematch.
UFC 155 is fast approaching. That event will bring easily one of the most anticipated fights of the year between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez. Both fighters are exciting heavyweights who want to make the claim that they are the baddest man on t…
UFC 155 is fast approaching. That event will bring easily one of the most anticipated fights of the year between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez.
Both fighters are exciting heavyweights who want to make the claim that they are the baddest man on the planet.
They will meet in the main event of UFC 155 in the annual year-end show. There are lots of stats floating around about this fight and the two competitors.
Let’s take a good look at everything you need to know about dos Santos vs. Velasquez 2.
UFC 155 is nearly upon us which means the year 2012 is also nearing a close. The UFC loves to go with the MMA tradition of putting on great cards to close out the year and UFC 155 is no exception.Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez will meet one anoth…
UFC 155 is nearly upon us which means the year 2012 is also nearing a close. The UFC loves to go with the MMA tradition of putting on great cards to close out the year and UFC 155 is no exception.
Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez will meet one another for a second time for the UFC heavyweight championship. In the “co-main event”, Joe Lauzon faces the tough Jim Miller in a lightweight tilt. Tim Boetsch will face Costa Philippou in what should be an absolute war.
Rounding out the rest of the card are middleweight fights between Yushin Okami and Alan Belcher, and Chris Leben welcomes Derek Brunson to the UFC.
With so many questions surrounding the main event alone, fans have been looking for answers as the day approaches. Regardless of whatever questions fans may have, they can take these predictions to the bank as they’re virtually guaranteed to happen.
There’s little more than a week left until UFC 155, and as usual, Dana White is kicking off fight week with his semi-regular video blog series.In the first installment, the focus is squarely on Joe Lauzon, who will be competing on Saturday against fell…
There’s little more than a week left until UFC 155, and as usual, Dana White is kicking off fight week with his semi-regular video blog series.
In the first installment, the focus is squarely on Joe Lauzon, who will be competing on Saturday against fellow lightweight contender Jim Miller.
As White narrates for the camera, a friend of his called “Nick The Tooth'” was making good on a drunken grappling challenge against Lauzon with the caveat that Lauzon would win $1000 from White for each successful submission attempt.
In shades of an actual UFC event, the friendly sparring session was held in a full-size Octagon with ringside officials, a post-production crew and even a referee (one of Lauzon’s training staff). Judging by the footage, the challenge went down at the KeyArena in Seattle, Washington, which places the match around the recent UFC on Fox 5 card earlier this month.
Despite Nick being the larger man, Lauzon effortlessly pulled off six submissions in a single three-minute match, netting a $6000 prize from his boss. In order, Lauzon showed off an armbar, front-lock guillotine, toehold, armbar, a flying triangle choke and a third armbar.
Nick The Tooth walked away from the match a bit bloody but still had plenty of praise for Lauzon:
“It was a rough one. I didn’t think he would have that kind of strength. He was strong, he was fast [and] he was explosive.”
Lauzon’s submission skills will almost certainly face a much stiffer test when he fights against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Jim Miller this Saturday at UFC 155. Although it’s not a requirement to win, Lauzon also aims to net a record-breaking 12th post-fight bonus in the UFC, which would officially top Anderson Silva‘s 11 post-fight bonuses.
Forrest Griffin won’t have to worry about losing to a guy in pink tights, thanks to his knee injury.Although he was originally scheduled to fight Phil Davis as part of the main card at UFC 155, Griffin was ultimately forced to pull out of the match aft…
Forrest Griffin won’t have to worry about losing to a guy in pink tights, thanks to his knee injury.
Although he was originally scheduled to fight Phil Davis as part of the main card at UFC 155, Griffin was ultimately forced to pull out of the match after citing a knee injury.
Now, we know just how bad the damage really was.
Sending out a rather gruesome photo from his Twitter account, Griffin revealed his patched-up knee, now a swollen mess of stitching, scrapes and medical tape.
Griffin has battled a few injuries during the course of his Octagon career, the most common one being a recurring shoulder injury that sidelined him from a UFC 114 bout with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
However, this MCL tear and ACL strain appears to be the worst one yet.
Previously, middleweight contender Chris Weidman dropped out of a match with Tim Boetsch due to shoulder injury, while top lightweight Gray Maynard was scrubbed from his fight with Joe Lauzon after complications to his knee necessitated surgery.
Both fighters have been replaced by ConstantinosPhilippou and Jim Miller, respectively.
Hopefully, UFC 155 stays intact with its main event, a heavyweight title fight between champion Junior dos Santos and challenger Cain Velasquez. If so, the card will go down this Saturday, Dec. 29, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Junior dos Santos has only defended his title once since taking it from Cain Velasquez in November 2011, but the Brazilian titleholder is now set to meet the former champion in a rematch at UFC 155.In their first bout at UFC on Fox 1, Dos Santos put Ve…
Junior dos Santos has only defended his title once since taking it from Cain Velasquez in November 2011, but the Brazilian titleholder is now set to meet the former champion in a rematch at UFC 155.
In their first bout at UFC on Fox 1, Dos Santos put Velasquez away in only 64 seconds via knockout. Both Dos Santos (via Ariel Helwani) and Velasquez (via Bobby Razak) were dealing with knee injuries in that fight, though, so things could play out much differently on Saturday.
Velasquez is coming off of a brutal beatdown of Antonio Silva, which was ultimately enough for the UFC to give him a shot at reclaiming the heavyweight belt. On the same fight card that saw Velasquez defeat Silva, Dos Santos breezed through Frank Mir.
Clearly two of the best heavyweights in the world, Dos Santos and Velasquez could fight one another several times before all is said and done. For now, let’s take a look at which fighter will most likely win the second meeting.
There’s little more than a week left until