UFC 166 - My Views

So on Saturday night we saw the trilogy between the current UFC Heavyweight champion Cain Valasquez and the ex champion JDS. We also saw an interesting under-card that delivered in every aspect.Im in a rush so will only discuss the main event!

• Cain Velasquez def. Junior dos Santos via TKO (strikes) - Round 5, 3:09 - to retain heavyweight title 

JDS After UFC 166

So the main event of the evening was much hyped and rightly so! A quick history on these two... They first met in November 2011 in the UFC's flagship debut on FOX. Cain held the belt and JDS took it with a 1.04 second KO of Cain. They next met in December 2012 and Cain manhandled JDS for 5 rounds beating him silly.


The fight started explosively with JDS landing big shots early on. It almost looked like it could have been a repeat of the first time they met with Cain getting caught early. He recovered quickly though and went on to dominate JDS with his sheer pace and stamina. Cain was non stop and quickly realised pinning JDS against the cage would work. Remarkably JDS was beaten very much in the same way as they last met. He had no answer for Cains sheer aggressive approach and non stop energy. Eventually after trying for a choke JDS landed face-first on the canvas seemingly knocking himself unconscious briefly while Cain rained down more shots. Eventually the fight was waved off. In the interview with JDS after the fight he did not have a clue what was going on and he looked like a cross of the Nog brothers.

I know Cain posseses great stamina and pace but I was suprised how far behind him JDS is. After losing the last fight in that way I thought JDS would come in with a better game plan than looking for the big shot early then fading.

The question now is what for each of these fighters? They have both effectively cleared out the heavyweight division and have now faced each other 3 times with Cain being the clear winner bar a flash knockout. Daniel Cormier will also move to light heavyweight now leaving the division essentially empty after removing Roy Nelson from the title shot for another few fights. The only other guy kicking around of interest is Overeem. Coming off two KO losses in recent outings he faces Frank Mir at UFC 169 in what surely is a loser leaves the UFC fight.

I will be interested to see what UFC matchmaker Joe Silva now does with these two. Only time will tell but I cannot see any one challenging Cain in the foreseeable future.

Other results from card

MAIN CARD

• Daniel Cormier def. Roy Nelson via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Gilbert Melendez def. Diego Sanchez via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)
• Gabriel Gonzaga def. Shawn Jordan via TKO (punches) - Round 1, 1:33
• John Dodson def. Darrell Montague via knockout (punches) - Round 1, 4:13

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Tim Boetsch def. C.B. Dollaway via split decision (30-26, 27-29, 30-26)
• Hector Lombard def. Nate Marquardt via knockout (punches) - Round 1, 1:48
• Jessica Eye def. Sarah Kaufman via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• K.J. Noons def. George Sotiropoulos via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Adlan Amagov def. T.J. Waldburger via knockout (punches) - Round 1, 3:45
• Tony Ferguson def. Mike Rio via submission (D'Arce choke) - Round 1, 1:52
• Andre Fili def. Jeremy Larsen via TKO (punches) - Round 2, 0:53
• Kyoji Horiguchi def. Dustin Pague via TKO (punches) - Round 2, 3:51