UFC on Fox Preview

We are officially 1 day away from MMA, a sport still in it's infancy, from hitting the mainstream. Tomorrow night MMA's biggest and most popular organization, the UFC, will put it's show on network television and FOX. Ten years ago Senator John McCain was attempting to get the sport banned claiming it was "human cockfighting". The sport of MMA wasn't allowed on PPV let alone network television. Nobody wanted to touch it. Until....Zuffa, which consists of Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta and their childhood friend Dana White, chose to purchase the UFC for a measly 2 million dollars. After making Dana White the President of the UFC the Fertitta brothers invested close to 40 million dollars. The company didn't turn a profit until 2006 with the help of the hit TV show The Ultimate Fighter which produced such stars as Forrest Griffin, Kenny Florian and Stephan Bonnar.

Now the UFC is a billion dollar company making over 40 of their fighters millionaires and over 20 fighters multi-millionaires. The sport has grown immensely every year and Dana White has been quoted as saying, "Fighting is a language that every country speaks." I'd say he is right considering the UFC is in 155 countries, in 22 different languages, in over a half of a billion homes worldwide. Tomorrow night, on FOX, is history in the making. It's the greatest combat sport, and now it's mainstream. Here is my breakdown of the biggest fight in the sports history, the main event tomorrow night, undefeated Heavyweight Champ Cain Velasquez vs Junior Dos Santos.

This fight is free? This fight is the first fight on network television and it's for the heavyweight championship of the world? Are you kidding me? Somebody pinch me I must be dreaming. This is the closest possible fight to a Frazier/Ali type fight that the UFC could make, and they did.

Cain Velasquez is an absolute animal. Cain has torn through every fighter he has ever faced including first round TKO's against the likes of Brock Lesnar, Antonio Nogeuira, and Ben Rothwell. Nobody has really even challenged Cain, he has had his way with every opponent he has faced to amass his 9-0 record. Cain has continuously worked on his standup which is ever improving with his team at American Kickboxing Academy. However Cain's bread and butter is his wrestling and relentlessness. He is continuously moving forward and fights like a lightweight who has a ton of cardio. A standout wrestler at Arizona State, Cain has never had a problem getting a fight to the ground and look for him to look for the takedown early in this fight.

Junior Dos Santos is the complete opposite. Here is a fighter whom, if anyone, you could say has looked as impressive as Cain Velasquez. Junior has destroyed his opponents but has done it solely on his feet as opposed to using wrestling like Cain Velasquez. Most people would say that Junior has fought stiffer competition then Cain dispatching of names like Fabricio Werdum, Shane Carwin, Mirko Crocop, and Roy Nelson with relative ease. Junior's boxing is the best in the heavyweight division and, in my opinion, it's not even close. Junior uses his range and footwork to jab his opponents and counters with the right uppercut when his opponents shoot in. He has knockout power in both hands, but tends to not throw many kicks. We also have yet to see Junior on the ground. He is a blackbelt under the Noguiera brothers which is nothing to sneeze at but we have yet to see how Junior would react to getting taken down and put on his back in the octagon. There is a reason that we haven't seen Junior on his back in the octagon. Junior's takedown defense is some of the best in the sport. He has a great underhook and is so fast for a heavyweight that he is hard to catch. It will be interesting to see what Cain does to try to take this fight to the ground.

OUTCOME - This fight is going to be exciting. No matter what. Both fighters are phenomenal and I could not be happier as a fan that this is happening tomorrow night. With that said, I look for Cain to come out quickly and try to bully Junior around the cage and continuously work for the takedown keeping the pressure on Junior and not letting him find his range early. I don't think Cain will be able to get Junior down but I do think he will use some wall and stall tactics early on. Junior will defend Cain's takedown, underhook and circle off the cage, using his jab and uppercuts to keep Cain from shooting in for a takedown. Don't look for many, if any, leg kicks or kicks of any kind from Junior for fear of the takedown. Cain has been out of commission, due to injury, for over a year and this is his first fight back and his first title defense. Due to that fact I don't look for Cain to be completely up to speed with his usual fights and possibly coming out sluggish in the 2nd round. I look for Junior to take advantage of this and land some big shots in the 2nd round to finish the fight by TKO and become the new UFC Heavyweight Champion.