UFC 155 will feature one of the most anticipated heavyweight clashes in UFC history. Junior Dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez will fight a second time and even after a convincing KO win, not everyone is convinced that JDS can do it twice…especially his peers.
[adinserter block=”1″]It is easy for a blogger like me to sit here and make UFC predictions but even I’ll admit it is more interesting to hear them from the pros themselves. So let’s hear what the heavyweights that have stepped into the UFC octagon have to say about Velasquez vs. JDS II.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture is going with the challenger.
“The rematch is gonna be interesting, I think you’ll see Cain back at the top of his game and sharp it was a question with the shoulder issues he had. Coming back and fighting a guy the caliber of Dos Santos. he was just sitting there waiting and obviously hungry. Cain certainly wants his belt back so i think maybe we’ll see a little bit tighter Dos Santos than we’ve seen in the past. but it will be an interesting rematch, for sure. I expect to see a lot more wrestling out of Velasquez, to deal with the punching and striking abilities of Junior dos Santos.”
It is hard to take Couture’s picks seriously as it seems that Randy likes to go with underdogs more often than not His assessment of Velasquez and the wrestling makes a lot of sense, although I am expecting another one round KO, this time in favor of Velasquez.
Roy Nelson also offered his pick. Roy is interesting because he has actually gone the distance with the champion. Unfortunately you never know if what Roy is saying is actually what he thinks or what he is hoping will make headlines.
“I think I was the only one who gave Junior a chance to actually finish that fight…I still got Junior. Just because, he hits hard and if anything he’s got five rounds to knock Cain’s block off. If Cain does the same thing he did last time, it’s not gonna be a good thing. I think Cain has to just change his game-plan up and actually go out there and execute good, solid grappling match game-plan, then he’ll be okay. As long as you’re tying him up, he can’t punch you.”
So Roy is going with Junior. Like Couture though Roy is saying that Velasquez’s key to victory is the wrestling.
You didn’t expect the media to pass up the opportunity to quote former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem did you?
“I think Cain is gonna do good in this next fight. I think he might even get the belt. I think he’s gonna get the belt.”
Talk about going out on a limb. I have to say I expected Overeem to take another dig at Dos Santos but he kept the pick rather straight and professional. A Cain vs. Overeem fight is certainly intriguing but for the sake of seeing JDS vs. Overeem, I am hoping to see JDS pull off the win and make it 2-0 against Velasquez.
Frank Mir is a former UFC heavyweight champion who has fought Dos Santos and trained to fight Velasquez. Mir is one of the better analysts in the game in my opinion so I tend to put a little more weight behind his opinion as opposed to his peers. Here is what he said on Fuel TV.
[adinserter block=”2″]”I think it’s really close. Again, I think Velasquez is extremely well rounded, very tenacious has great grappling ability. I think the way to beat Dos Santos is to close off the cage, to put him against there and put him down on the ground. Lets test his abilities in other areas. He’s already proven he’s an unbelievable fighter when it comes to the open area. His footwork, his speed. I think if you want to take the champion away from that, you have to take him out of that element. I think Velasquez has the potential to possibly do so. That being said he’s already tried once and came up short and Dos Santos, so far no one has really figured out the riddle on really how to cut him off and get him down to the ground. No one has been able to really be dominant at all, or even show a chink in his armor. As of right now, he goes around and he does what he does best and no one is able to stop him. They’re both such great fighters. I’ll probably slide toward the champion just because he is the champion. It’s not something I would actually bet my house on.”
Former UFC contender Shane Carwin also weighed in on the fight. Dos Santos brutalized Carwin in Carwin’s last fight which saw Carwin go the distance with JDS.
“Dos Santos and Cain, I think it is more of the same from the last fight, Dos Santos”
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