Junior dos Santos Small Favorite Over Velasquez
Published on December 24th, 2012 3:20 pm ESTJunior dos Santos will look to make his second successful UFC Heavyweight title defense when he squares off against Cain Velasquez in the main event of UFC 155 this Saturday.
This will be the second time that Dos Santos and Velasquez have squared off against each other. The two squared off in the first ever UFC on Fox card, with Dos Santos scoring a quick knockout to win the Heavyweight title. Velasquez, who was hurt at the time (as was Dos Santos, to be fair), has promised a much different result this time around.
Velasquez regained his ferocity and edge in his most recent bout against Antonio Silva. Velasquez bloodied and bludgeoned the giant en route to an emphatic victory. Velasquez' destruction of Silva set up a rematch with Junior dos Santos.
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As it stands right now, here are the odds for dos Santos vs Velasquez II, courtesy of Bodog:
Junior dos Santos, -150
Cain Velasquez, +120
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Will Velasquez be able to power through Junior's striking and take the fight to the floor? There is no doubt that dos Santos is the superior striker, which means that Cain's clearest path to victory is taking the fight to the ground and pounding out dos Santos.
In the UFC, of course, it's usually never that simple.
Junior dos Santos is more than proficient on the ground, as he possesses a black belt in BJJ. Dos Santos has never had to show off his ground game due to the fact that he has always just taken people's heads off. If Cain can get dos Santos to the ground (which is a tough task as well, given how strong dos Santos' TDD ("take down defense") is)), he will have to worry about being submitted.
This is a very intriguing fight, and I can't wait to see it go down on Saturday night.
