Fans, fighters and analysts alike knew a lightweight scrap between Gilbert Melendez and Diego Sanchez had the potential to be something special, and the two scrappy competitors did not disappoint in the slightest.
The two Mexican-American fighter…
Fans, fighters and analysts alike knew a lightweight scrap between Gilbert Melendez and Diego Sanchez had the potential to be something special, and the two scrappy competitors did not disappoint in the slightest.
The two Mexican-American fighters stood in the center of the cage and traded leather for the better part of three rounds, and although “El Nino” got the better of the original Ultimate Fighter, Sanchez refused to quit and manged to drop the ex-Strikeforce champ with an uppercut in the third round.
Wild, bloody brawls are Sanchez’s specialty and Melendez certainly had no intentions of fighting conservatively in this instant classic that most pundits are already deeming 2013’s “Fight of the Year.”
The victory marks the first inside the Octagon for the Cesar Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown belt, who lost a controversial decision to then-champ Benson Henderson in his company debut at UFC on FOX 7 in April.
The 31-year-old has now won eight of his past nine bouts and is on the short list of contenders to face off with the winner of Anthony Pettis vs. Josh Thomson at UFC on FOX 9 in December.
Should Thomson be able to make “Showtime’s” title reign short lived, that could set up a fourth bout between Melendez and “The Punk.”
Thomson won his first fight with Melendez in June 2008 and lost the subsequent two matchups, but their May 2012 encounter was a heavily-disputed split decision that many felt Melendez had lost.
However, the judges saw it otherwise.
As for Sanchez, the 30-fight veteran who has been competing for over 11 years now, he showed he can still hang with top-tier competition; however, he is just 3-4 in his past seven bouts.
The Greg Jackson-trained MMA fighter now has a 3-2 record at lightweight, defeating the likes of Joe Stevenson, Clay Guida and TakanoriGomi and losing to B.J. Penn and Melendez
UFC President Dana White did not give any indication of what’s next Sanchez at the UFC 166 post-fight media conference.
JohnHeinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA Editor for eDraft.com.
The rumblings were out there.
Sure, Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia were embroiled in a bitter feud involving ex-girlfriends, wearing a championship belt in public for some reason and title fights that weren’t all that interesting, but the rumblings wer…
There was a kid in the wrestling room at Arizona State, and he was coming for that title. He might never take it off of one of those guys, but he was coming for that title. He was wrestling as much for a mixed martial arts career as he was for his stellar collegiate record, and he was an absolute terminator.
That was 2005.
That kid was Cain Velasquez.
By 2010, the rumblings were confirmed. The Sylvias and Arlovskis of the world were long gone, but Velasquez was the heavyweight champion. He was undefeated, a path of destruction left in his wake.
He was a veteran of seven UFC fights by then, entering 2011 with a gold belt and the satisfaction of eviscerating one of MMA‘s ultimate myths, that of the unbeatable Brock Lesnar, fresh in his mind.
He’d been forced to enter the UFC at a mere 2-0 and coming off a two-year layoff, one not forced by injuries but by the fact that people simply refused to fight him. Some would pass outright; others would sign up and then find themselves mysteriously hurt once the reality of fighting him drew closer.
The bravest would get all the way to weigh-ins or even fight day, get a look at the man they’d agreed to fight—barrel-chested, dead-eyed and emblazoned with a “BROWN PRIDE” script across his collarbone—and simply turn around and go home.
It got so that Velasquez couldn’t find people to fight anywhere but the UFC, so he had to jump in with both feet. For all the talk of how remarkable it was that Lesnar made his UFC debut at 1-0, Velasquez did essentially the same thing and went on to utterly crush the former WWE star when they inevitably met.
2011 saw Velasquez on the shelf for most of the year while another young heavyweight romped his way to title contention.
Junior dos Santos, knocking people senseless, smiling a bunch and speaking humbly through a translator of his native Portuguese, was getting some attention.
Like the champion, he’d entered the promotion in 2008 and laid waste to the heavyweight division. Through a perfect run of seven UFC fights, only disgustingly tough Roy Nelson and former champion Shane Carwin survived three rounds, and both men endured beatings of biblical proportions to do it.
The fight was set.
As it would turn out, so was the trilogy.
The Shot Heard ‘Round the World for a new generation happened only 1:04 into the UFC’s official debut on network television, as the first-ever UFC on FOX event gave away a heavyweight title fight for free.
Junior dos Santos had dethroned Cain Velasquez with a single well-placed right hand, a bomb that went off behind the champion’s ear and planted him facedown on the canvas.
Suddenly, the affable Brazilian, draped in his country’s flag and now speaking English through his smiles and humility, had done something most thought impossible only months before: He’d stopped the scariest man in MMA.
No questions asked, no second-guessing.
Cain Velasquez had been vanquished for the first time in his career, and it happened in a way that some men simply don’t recover from.
The largest audience in the history of the sport had seen him, a man whose legend had been building in the MMA community since he was in his early-20s, fail to survive his first title defense past 64 seconds.
It wasn’t the end of his legacy, however.
In many ways, it was where it began.
The best come back better after a loss. They find the problems in their approach, their training and their execution, and they close up the holes.
While dos Santos held the title, securing big money sponsorships with Pretorian and Nike, Velasquez went back to the drawing board and figured out how to get his title back.
Both men appeared at UFC 146. Velasquez pounded geysers of blood from the head of Antonio Silva on his way to a decisive win, while dos Santos defended his title with a TKO of the badly overmatched Frank Mir.
With the two former champions looking not only so good, but so much better than the rest of the heavyweight field, a second meeting was booked for the end of the 2012 event calendar.
It would look very, very different than their first meeting.
December’s UFC 155 showed the world two things: Junior dos Santos was the toughest heavyweight in the history of the promotion, and nobody can lay a prolonged beating on a professional killing machine better than Cain Velasquez.
For five rounds Velasquez, hungrier and more relentless than he’d ever been, beat the Brazilian from pillar to post.
In terms of a title fight, a fight between two men at the top of the game and as theoretically close to one another in skill as these two men were on paper, there may never have been a worse beating in the history of combat sports.
Velasquez recaptured his title, covered in an opponent’s blood once again and knowing that he’d have to do it one more time if he was to secure his legacy.
Fast forward 10 months.
Houston, Texas.
Both men have fought and beaten opponents in the interim since UFC 155, and they stand across the cage for the third time in under two years.
They’re a combined 20-2 in the UFC, and their only losses are to each other.
The horn sounds, and they’re doing it one last time.
It takes a little over 23 minutes, and it probably feels a lot longer to dos Santos as he attempts to fight Velasquez off and land his vaunted combinations, but it finally happens.
Cain Velasquez stops Junior dos Santos.
After hitting him with shots that would stop a charging rhinoceros, exhausting him with cage pressure, hitting him with more shots and almost finishing him a number of times with near-knockouts, swelling and cuts, Velasquez breaks his man.
Dos Santos is done, balled into the turtle position and eating shots until the referee saves him from further damage.
Some immediately say they’ll meet again; others can’t imagine seeing it after 10 straight rounds of domination from Velasquez, who has truly put the “undisputed” back in “undisputed UFC heavyweight champion” over the past calendar year.
But his legacy is secure: Cain Velasquez is the best heavyweight in the history of mixed martial arts.
That kid who came from the mats of ASU to the Octagon is your heavyweight champion. For nearly 10 years, he did nothing but think about becoming a dominant mixed martial artist.
And he’s done that.
His legacy is secure, even at 31 years of age and with a relatively lean 14-fight career, as a man deserving of a place alongside the likes of FedorEmelianenko, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Randy Couture.
No one has beaten the caliber of opposition Velasquez has in the way that he has, finishing 85 percent of them inside the distance. Only he, Sylvia, Couture and Lesnar have defended the title multiple times.
He has cardio the likes of which no heavyweight has ever displayed, a wrestling pedigree that has been adopted to MMA as perfectly as anyone has ever managed, and a stand-up game that is much slicker than it’s ever given credit for. And that’s to say nothing of his tireless, frighteningly relentless ground-and-pound, undoubtedly the best the sport has ever seen.
But it took more than just his drive and skill to make Velasquez the man he is. It took more than the stories of blood and sweat spilled on wrestling mats, of opponents running to their cars to avoid him in regional promotions or of him simply becoming a champion.
It took a great rival, a man who wasn’t afraid of Velasquez the man or Velasquez the myth. It took someone to push him, to beat him clean, to make him want that title even more than he did when he was working his way up on the undercard.
It took Junior dos Santos to make him truly great. It took beating dos Santos twice, without any doubts as to who was the better man, to secure his legacy.
Not every fighter gets that chance in that way. Generational gaps and promotional crossroads often leave fans and fighters alike wondering “what if?”
It just so happened that this was a time where no one had to ask that question – it was played out over 11 rounds for all the world to see.
Cain Velasquez seized the opportunity he was given through that reality, and he secured his legacy in the process.
Looking back on the road he traveled to get this far though, anyone who was paying attention knew that was bound to happen.
Roy “Big Country” Nelson had his chance to earn a shot at the UFC heavyweight title in the next year. Instead, he lost a lopsided decision against a man who is working to move to light heavyweight.
Daniel Cormier out-boxed Nelson and proved to be a sup…
Roy “Big Country” Nelson had his chance to earn a shot at the UFC heavyweight title in the next year. Instead, he lost a lopsided decision against a man who is working to move to light heavyweight.
Daniel Cormier out-boxed Nelson and proved to be a superior grappler en route to defeating Big Country. He subsequently expressed his desire to move to the 205-pound division in his next fight, according to ESPN.com’s Franklin McNeil.
Nelson couldn’t land his big right hand, and without that weapon he looked helpless. The stamina bug also seemed to bite him late in the fight. When you consider the fact that the fight was just a three-round affair, it makes you wonder how well Nelson would perform in a five-round main event.
In his UFC career, Nelson has never been beyond the third round. Now he must head to the back of the line in the heavyweight ranks. At 37 years old, Nelson doesn’t have a great deal of time to climb the ladder again.
The loss on Saturday night was a huge setback.
C.B. DollawayDidn’t Make Any Fans in Houston
In a spirited battle with Tim “The Barbarian” Boetsch, Dollaway did his best Nate Diaz impersonation. He taunted Boetsch defiantly and egged his opponent on with trash talk. That wasn’t the worst aspect of his performance, though.
On two occasions, Dollaway poked Boetsch in the eyes. The first one was the most severe and appeared to be accidental. But the second instance had to leave fans scratching their heads. Dollaway repeatedly attempted to fend off Boetsch with an open hand. At the very least, the second eye poke looked like it could have been avoided.
Referee Kerry Hatley apparently agreed, as he took a point from Dollaway after the second foul. In the end, Boetsch was awarded a split-decision victory. The judging in the fight was peculiar. It seemed Dollaway won the first round. It was possible to score the second even, though Dollaway could have won that one as well.
The Barbarian won the third—even without the point deduction—so awarding him the win isn’t totally preposterous. However, depending on how you scored the second round, an argument could be made that Dollaway deserved the win, or a draw.
In any case, karma says Dollaway deserved to lose after his controversial eye pokes.
Nate “Not-So-Great” Marquardt
The end is near for Marquardt—at least it should be. Hector Lombard did look like the beast most had expected him to be when he made his UFC debut in 2012. Still, Marquardt backpedaled the entire fight, and it was clear a KO stoppage was inevitable from the start.
Marquardt is 34 years old, and he’s been competing in the UFC since 2005. The loss to Lombard was his third in a row and second straight by KO.
Marquardt has been in with names like ChaelSonnen, YushinOkami, Jake Ellenberger, Anderson Silva, Jeremy Horn and others; but it is in his best interest to call it a career.
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The third chapter in the Cain Velasquez-Junior dos Santos saga came to a close last night at UFC 166 in Houston, Texas.
Have you recovered yet? Those of you in America can count yourselves lucky that the card concluded at a somewhat reasonable hour.
Th…
Have you recovered yet? Those of you in America can count yourselves lucky that the card concluded at a somewhat reasonable hour.
Those of us in the United Kingdom were still bouncing off the walls from sheer adrenaline at 6 a.m. But I digress.
Both champion and challenger combined to put on an exhibition of mixed martial arts at its most compelling.
Technique? Check. Endurance? Check? Athleticism? Check. Heart? Check ad infinitum.
All that being said, even the most charitable observer would be hard-pressed to argue that the bout was anything besides a one-sided shellacking.
Velasquez dominated in the kind of fashion ordinarily reserved for pro wrestling squash-matches.
So what went wrong for the challenger?
In the build-up to UFC 166, dos Santos and his team made every effort to chalk up the result of the second fight to overtraining, but last night’s thrashing left no doubt in anyone’s mind that Velasquez is simply the better fighter.
Dos Santos’ problems appear to be more fundamental than he is, perhaps, willing to admit.
While the second and third fights differed in some important ways, they were strikingly similar for the most part.
Going into last night’s event, most observers surmised that the Brazilian could significantly close the gap on the champion if he was able to improve his cardio.
To his credit, dos Santos’ gas tank did look like it had undergone an overhaul. This not only allowed him to carry his power into the later rounds, but it also allowed him to keep the fight standing—for all the good it did.
Surprisingly, the biggest problem for “Cigano” was actually his footwork.
Unlike many MMA fighters who have been hailed as great boxers, such as Nick Diaz, dos Santos’ footwork is normally one of his biggest assets.
As a natural counter-puncher, he is adept at creating angles and employs lateral movement in order to maintain his distance.
Velasquez certainly deserves much of the credit, but the Brazilian seemed to forget how to move his feet for most of the fight.
Rather than circling away from the cage, dos Santos continually retreated in straight lines and allowed the champion to trap him up against the fence, where most of the damage was done.
As soon as the fight turned into a clinch-battle up against the cage, it was like ice skating uphill for “Cigano.”
The champion was able to control dos Santos’ upper body with superior grappling and, crucially, head positioning.
The former champion wasn’t permitted enough space to bring his power to bear. Velasquez was content to beat him up with short strikes, occasionally separating just long enough to land three or four power shots.
As the sport has continued to evolve, the cage has become more of a weapon than a simple barrier between fighter and spectator.
In particular, the clinch battle against the cage is now one of the most important aspects of mixed martial arts. Indeed, it is so counterintuitively complex that it almost seems like a martial art in and of itself.
Unfortunately, many fighters struggle with this aspect of the sport. We need only look at Frank Mir’s most recent outings to understand how crucial it is to excel in this area.
While his issues are not as acute as Mir’s in the clinch, dos Santos looked similarly lost when pushed up against the cage last night.
It’s hard to imagine how dos Santos can possibly compete with Velasquez in the future unless he is able to address this hole in his game.
The good news is that he has time on his side. Dos Santos and Velasquez may yet meet for a fourth time, but based on what we witnessed last night, it won’t be any time soon.
Junior “Cigano” dos Santos needed to keep his back off the mat to have a chance to beat Cain Velasquez at UFC 166. For the most part he did that. Cigano stopped 11-of-13 takedown attempts from the champion. He also absorbed some big punches before fina…
Junior “Cigano” dos Santos needed to keep his back off the mat to have a chance to beat Cain Velasquez at UFC 166. For the most part he did that. Cigano stopped 11-of-13 takedown attempts from the champion. He also absorbed some big punches before finally succumbing in the fifth round.
For the record, it wasn’t a punch that technically led to dos Santos being stopped in the final round. He banged the top of his head on the mat in an attempt to lock on a submission. Nonetheless, the event didn’t change the bottom line.
Velasquez was going to win the fight in any case. His amazing cardio was the biggest reason for his performance. After dos Santos appeared to gas out in their second meeting, he seemed intent upon keeping something in reserve for this bout.
Cigano clearly had a little more steam in his punches late in the fight, but he simply couldn’t keep Velasquez off of him. If the game plan was to outlast Velasquez and take advantage of him late, it was a seemingly impossible mission.
Velasquez used his weight and lower center of gravity to power dos Santos into the cage for much of the fight.
To get inside, Velasquez threw hard and accurate power punches. He floored dos Santos with one of those shots in the third round. It seemed the fight might have been over at that point. However, to dos Santos’ credit, he had an iron chin and will.
In all, according to figures from FightMetric, Velasquez threw a total of 378 strikes; he landed 274 of them. That is an average of 75.6 per round. These attacks weren’t light blows. Velasquez threw 201 significant strikes and landed 123 of them.
When you factor in the takedown attempts, the constant pressure and leaning against the cage and the constant strike attempts, Velasquez’s work rate was phenomenal.
The combination of Velasquez’s skill and stamina makes him perhaps the toughest out in the sport.
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It’s been a good year for Russian MMA. Russia has always been one of the more underrated martial arts nations, with the notable exception of the great Last Emperor Fedor Emelianenko, but all of a sudden there are a lot of guys to be excited about.
Bell…
It’s been a good year for Russian MMA. Russia has always been one of the more underrated martial arts nations, with the notable exception of the great Last Emperor FedorEmelianenko, but all of a sudden there are a lot of guys to be excited about.
Bellator is bursting at the seams with Russian talent, with names like Alexander Shlemenko, Alexander Volkov and Andrey Koreshkov all riding high, just to name a few.
The UFC, however, is catching up.
KhabibNurmagomedov is 21-0 and 5-0 in the UFC and finally getting recognition for being one of the best grapplers in the sport. He’s not far from a title shot.
RustamKhabilov is 2-0 in the promotion and is fixing for a major jump in competition against Jorge Masvidal in a few weeks, a fight in which he’ll serve to be a very live dog come betting time.
And now, AdlanAmagov, a former middleweight Strikeforce brawler-turned-UFC welterweight dark horse, is turning some heads. With his violent knockout of TJ Waldburger at UFC 166, people are taking notice.
The win, set up with short punches from the clinch that are rarely powerful when thrown by most men, sent Waldburger from the cage on a stretcher while Amagov celebrated moving to 2-0 in the UFC and 13-2-1 overall.
He lost his first-ever fight in Russia as a light heavyweight, fought to a draw with current Bellator light heavyweight champion Attila Vegh in 2010 and lost to Robbie Lawler in his first appearance on a big Strikeforce card.
Everyone else, he’s victimized.
Eight of his 13 wins now have come by knockout, and he’s entering the prime of his career. Gifted with scary natural flexibility and athleticism, as well as the frightfully stoic fighting demeanor of the many great countrymen who’ve come before him, it’s clear he’s a guy to watch going forward.
The variety of his strikes coupled with the power he generates and the technical capacity that’s been evident in his early UFC appearances suggests a man who has finally found a home.
TJ Grant dropped a weight class and went from also-ran to world-beater, and Amagov has the same feel. He’s the same blend of bullish stand-up and unheralded grappling skill, but with the added bonus of training at one of the best gyms in the world under Greg Jackson—something Grant hasn’t had to this point.
We all saw how far Grant rode a change on the scales over the past year or so, and it’s not hard to envision Amagov taking a similar path based on his early showings at 170.
Like the greats that came before him—Taktarov, the Emelianenkos, Kharitonov—and those mentioned that he presently shares the spotlight with, AdlanAmagov is showing that Russian MMA is serious business.
The rumblings were out there.