UFC 166: Cain Velasquez Pummels Junior dos Santos

Cain Velasquez easily handled Junior dos Santos on Saturday to end the UFC’s top heavyweight rivalry. The men fought during UFC 166 at the Toyota Center.

Velasquez controlled the rubber match by pushing dos Santos against the cage and then pummeling him with short punches on the inside. The match ended at 3:09 in the fifth.

Before the fight Junior dos Santos got in Cain Velasquez’s face but that was some of the closest near contact he would make.

In 2011 a UFC match on Fox 1 saw Dos Santos take the title from Velasquez. However, Velasquez has come back to win their last two fights in one-sided fashion. Junior dos Santos managed to land two hard punches during Saturday night’s fight, however, Velasquez controlled the rest of the match.

By moving to the inside Cain Velasquez was able to keep hard punches out of the equation. He wore down his opponent by pushing him against the cage while hitting with a flurry of straight right hands.

By the end of the match Dos Santo’s face was covered in blood and a final punch from Velasquez sent him reeling to the ground. As he sagged to his knees referee Herd Dean called the match by way of TKO.

During their previous match Cain Velasquez claimed the victory by constantly pushing dos Santos to the ground. This time the men stayed standing but the outcome was virtually the same.

After the match a dumbfounded Junior dos Santos said “He beat me up. What can I say?”

In other UFC 166 news, Daniel Cormier, in his final fight at heavyweight before moving to light heavyweight, won a unanimous decision over Roy Nelson. All three judges scored that fight 30-27 for Cormier. After that match Cormier said, “I have some work to do, but I’m going to be the [light heavyweight] champion some day, believe me.”

Gabriel Gonzaga and Shawn Jordan faced off in the shortest match of the night after Gonzaga caught Jordan with a round of hard ground-and-pound shots which sent Jordan to the mat at 1:33 in the first.

The John Dodson and Darrell Montague fight also ended in a first round knock down. Dodson landed several quick punches which send Montague to the ground after a straight left to the jaw. Montague fell face first to the floor and the fight was called. After that match Dodson proclaimed, “I wanted to make sure my striking was perfect and accurate every time.”

Were you impressed with the UFC 166 fights on Saturday night?