UFC 155 Recap: Cain Velazquez Flattens Dos Santos

by Dr. Octagon, J.D.

Cain Velasquez showed what he looks like without a knee injury tonight, regaining his UFC heavyweight title by unanimous decision over Junior Dos Santos.

Velasquez never stopped coming forward against an obviously out of shape Dos Santos. Junior never looked the same after Cain landed a big right hand in the first round. Junior actually stared well, stuffing a bunch of takedowns, but Cain just kept coming and eventually Junior began to wear down. Junior also struggled to get separation the entire fight, as Cain stifled him, dragged him to the ground and beat him up.

Junior’s cardio did not look good as he looked tired far before the championship rounds.  Cain now has his title back, and it looks like he’s set to fight Alistair Overeem next.

Jim Miller put a savage beating on Joe Lauzon in one of the bloodiest fights in recent memory.  It looked like Lauzon had at least three or four deep cuts on his face, as he bled all over the Octagon. Miller was the better man in all aspects of the fight.

Tim Boetsch’s luck ran out as he took a beating from Constantinos Phillipou. Boetsch had two flukey wins in a row coming into the fight: a great comeback against Yushin Okami and a close decision over an uncharacteristically cautious Hector Lombard.  In other words, Boetsch looked better on paper than he was in reality. He was exposed by Phillipou, and TKOed in the third round.

Yushin Okami defeated Alan Belcher, who looked terrible. Derek Brunson defeated Chris Leben, who looked like he should have trained a little longer after he got out of rehab. Eddie Wineland beat the shit out of Brad Pickett and still managed to lose 29-28 on one judge’s card, even though the other two had it 30-27, which was my score.

One of the night’s judges was giving out some bizarre scorecards; I’m guessing it was the same guy that gave Melvin Guillard all three rounds when the other two had it 30-27 against Guillard. I understand that there’s some judgment involved here, but at some point you just have to single out the clown with the clearly incorrect scores and make sure he never gets anywhere near a fight again. 

Erik Perez murdered Byron Bloodworth in the first round of a fight that seemed calculated to guarantee a victory for the fighter of Mexican heritage. I’m sure the UFC was happy with the outcome of this fight, not to mention the co-main event.