Junior dos Santos Sends an Ominous Message
Three years ago, after watching dos Santos dispose of Fabrico Werdum, a man being groomed for a title run, I said out loud to myself that dos Santos would become champion. He has the best applied boxing in the division and in the UFC. Although Rogan idiotically calls him a specialist, someone who’s really good at only one thing, Cigano is also a black belt in BJJ, and is one of the toughest men to take down. Getting and keeping the fight where you want it is one of the points of MMA, and no one does that better than dos Santos. In your face, Joe.
Fans were split as to whether Cain Velasquez or Junior dos Santos would win, and rightly so. Despite the quick finish, Velasquez had till now showed no real weakness. He was 9-0 with 8 (T) KOs. No one had been able to deal well with his crisp, fluid striking, stellar wrestling and superior ground control. The Mexican-American had KOed Big Nog and schooled Lesnar in the finer arts of punching, kicking and grappling. But when two men of that size and skill square off, anything can happen.
Dana was upset with the quick finish. Although he tries to control everything, he can’t. It was unfair for him to blame Cain for not trying to take dos Santos down or push the fight. As dos Santos said in the post fight press conference, Cain did move forward, was throwing hard kicks, and did try to take dos Santos down when the Brazilian threw a leg kick. He did enough for the first 60 seconds.
I noticed a few things about dos Santos that I’ve gleaned before, techniques he uses that greatly affect outcomes: he is a master at distance and angles, which makes him difficult to hit; he has very quick, intuitive escapes from take-down attempts, as demonstrated when he twisted and moved away when Cain had his leg; he throws extremely hard punches, to body parts like the liver and breast plate, which can wind, tire and disorient a fighter.
More to that last point---the punch that took out Cain was a hard right hand to the ear, one that Cain said affected his equilibrium, as it would. When you consider the precise placement of dos Santos’s punches, the shot was no fluke. JdS was aiming for the ear. It wouldn’t surprise me if in training his boxing coach noted Cain has no button on the jaw. Kongo rocked Cain three times in their fight and couldn’t notch the KO. JdS threw three very hard punches in one minute: the liver; breast plate; ear. All hit the intended target. Each had the intended effect.
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Fans wanted to see a longer fight, but everyone knew deep down a quick end was more than possible. The real disappointment was twofold: Both men are amazing people and so it was unfortunate one of them had to lose; I had no money on JdS.
The UFC on Fox was a success for Dana White and Zuffa, except that their sample fight didn’t actually portray to potential new fans the entirety of the sport. Considering Dana thinks of damn-near everything, it’s surprising Fox didn’t have another fight on air that they banked on, just the HW title fight. Sportsnet also showed the Guida/Henderson fight. Fox could have done this, even had it been a delay. The quality production and lead up bode well for the UFC on Fox, though, and having Lesnar there was good for the promotion of upcoming fights.
Another unspoken plus for this fight is it is unlikely to have scared away anyone. A bloody war with gruesome cuts or hematomas could have churned a few stomachs. It’s possible many doubting people tuned in and were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the men, production and fight.
In a previous article I commented that since these two fighters seem a head above the other HWs in the division, whoever came out victorious would likely retain the belt for a time. I stick with that assessment. It’s hard to imagine anyone winning even a round from the champ in the next year. One thing is certain: dos Santos sent an ominous message to the rest of the heavyweight division.
To see Renko’s hard-boiled MMA thriller, Char Broiled, with Afghan vet Char Sadao, go to Xystermma.com
By Renko Styranka
ProFighting-fans.com MMA Staff Writer