Back in May, I wrote a blog here on MMAPlus about how we were going to see Cain Velasquez vs Junior dos Santos meet for the heavyweight title for the third time in three years, and pondered where the feud might end. After UFC 166, it could be done for the foreseeable future.
Last night Cain Velasquez made history by dominating the former champ for the second time in little over a year and proving to the world that he is without a doubt the greatest heavyweight on the planet at the moment.
Back in 2011, 8.8 Million Americans watched ‘JDS’ knock out then champ Velasquez in just 64 seconds to claim the heavyweight belt in the UFC’s debut on Fox Sports, before Cain dominated Junior last December to tie it up and take back his title. Coming into the bout square at one-a-piece, Velasquez and Dos Santos had run through the heavyweight division almost simultaneously, racking up eerily similar UFC records of 10-1 with the lone loss on each record coming to the man standing across from them once again last night. Having proven to be, far and above, the best two in a division where one punch can end any one fight, this one was to prove once and for all (at least in Cain’s mind) who the best heavyweight in the world was, and he didn’t let himself down.
For four and a half rounds this one went much the same way as the second fight, as the champ dictated the pace and pressed his challenger against the cage, wearing him down bit by bit and looking more and more impressive as the bout went on. With Herb Dean almost stopping the fight in the third round (after Cain dropped his foe and pounced on him) and then the doctor being given the choice in the fourth whether to call an end (with ‘Cigano’ squirting blood and not being able to open his eye), it looked like Junior’s claims that the Mexican-American ‘hits like a girl’ and couldn’t stop the Brazilian was about to come back and bite him in the arse. Somehow, his heart prevailed and he made it to the fifth and final round.
By then, Dos Santos was visibly gassed and Velasquez remained relentless. Game to the end, the challenger looked for an opening and mid-way through the frame tried for a takedown and a finish of his own. Trying to lock in a choke was to be the beginning of the end as he slipped and landed head first on the canvas, rocking himself in the process and unable to protect himself from a Velasquez onslaught; forcing the ref to mercifully step in and call it at 3.09 of the fifth round.
To be dominated twice in a year by the champ, unless Cain loses the title or gets injured, the road back to the belt could be a long one for ‘Cigano’.
Fabricio ‘Vai Cavalo’ Werdum is seemingly next in line to try and dethrone the champ and after that will possibly be Travis Browne or Josh Barnett, or even someone else who bursts through from nowhere. But at the moment, with two wins over the consensus number two, Cain Velasquez becomes, without any debate, the best heavyweight in the sport of MMA today.
The way things are going he may someday even be held in the same breath as the great ‘Last Emperor’.
Time will tell.
Gregg Mullen @GeeMullen
