Junior dos Santos came full circle today as he arrived back home in Salvador, Brazil a UFC heavyweight champion. “Cigano,” whose rags to riches story had a fairytale ending Saturday night as he knocked out favorite Cain Velasquez as 8.8 million fans watched the upset on their televisions was welcomed like royalty at the Salvador Airport.
(Video courtesy of YouTube/rsena84)
Junior dos Santos came full circle today as he arrived back home in Salvador, Brazil a UFC heavyweight champion. “Cigano,” whose rags to riches story had a fairytale ending Saturday night as he knocked out favorite Cain Velasquez as 8.8 million fans watched the upset on their televisions was welcomed like royalty at the Salvador Airport.
A marching band played his “Rocky” theme walkout song as dos Santos walked through the security gates and out the front doors amidst dozens of reporters and hundreds of well-wishers where he climbed aloft a fire truck parked outside to address his fans.
There’s a guy who will never get sick of press conferences and media obligations. The dude never stops smiling — at least not when he’s outside the Octagon. Good to see he’s getting the love and recognition he deserves from the people back home.
CagePotato.com has learned that ProElite’s second show under its new ownership and management will happen November 5 at the iWireless Center in Moline, Illinois. Although no announcements have been made regarding the event, which is tentatively dubbed “ProElite II” or the show’s fight card, there is strong indication that the promotion is working on a third meeting between former UFC heavyweight champions Tim Sylvia (29-7) and Andrei Arlovski (16-9) and that the bout could be the main event.
Adding to speculation that the bout is all but official is the following tweet that “The Maine-iac” sent out last week.
(Which one is the dead horse?)
CagePotato.com has learned that ProElite’s second show under its new ownership and management will happen November 5 at the iWireless Center in Moline, Illinois. Although no announcements have been made regarding the event, which is tentatively dubbed “ProElite II” or the show’s fight card, there is strong indication that the promotion is working on a fourth meeting between former UFC heavyweight champions Tim Sylvia (29-7) and Andrei Arlovski (16-9) and that the bout could be the main event.
Adding to speculation that the bout is all but official is the following tweet that “The Maine-iac” sent out last week.
ProElite had originally planned to hold its next show back in Hawaii, but evidently decided that Illinois was a better fit, considering Arlovski lives and trains two hours west of Moline in Chicago and Sylvia is a part-time police officer in Milan, less than 15 minutes away from the venue.
If the bout does happen, Sylvia will go into it with a 2-1 advantage over Arlovski, having beaten him by decision and TKO in back-to-back bouts in 2006 after being submitted by Andrei in 2005 with an Achilles lock. Since being released by the UFC in 2008, the 35-year-old Maine native has racked up a somewhat uninspiring 5-3 record including losses to Fedor Emelianenko, Ray Mercer and Abe Wagner. Sources indicate that the former Team Miletich fighter, who defeated Patrick Barrentine (9-6) in his last fight under the Fight Tour banner on August 20, has been quietly preparing for his ProElite debut, so all evidence is pointing to this fight going down.
Arlovski’s luck hasn’t been any better. Since he was let go by Zuffa, the 32-year-old former Belarusian police officer has gone 3-4, including four losses in a row to Emelianenko, Brett Rogers, Antonio Silva and Sergei Kharitonov, respectively. In his most recent bout he defeated Ray Lopez (5-3) in “ProElite II’s” first show last month in Hawaii.
Tickets for the show will go on sale this Saturday at 10:00 am CT through Ticketmaster.
