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HOBAUGH: UFC 160's Junior dos Santos and the long road back to the UFC Championship
May 24, 2013 - 9:20:43 PM
HOBAUGH: UFC 160's Junior dos Santos and the long road back to the UFC Championship
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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Winning a UFC title may be one of the toughest accomplishments in sports today. Getting back to one once you've lost it may be an even tougher accomplishment. Many great fighters have won and lost a UFC championship belt. That list is impressive enough to be sure. The list of those who have failed to recapture the belt after losing it is long and dotted with some of the greatest fighters who ever strapped on the gloves.

Just a partial list:

Rich Franklin (lost his title to Anderson Silva at UFC 64)
Matt Hughes (lost his title to GSP at UFC 65
Chuck Liddel (lost his title at UFC 71 for Rampage Jackson)
Rampage Jackson (lost his title at UFC 86 to Forrest Griffin)
Rashad Evans (lost his title to Lyoto Machida at UFC 98)
Forrest Griffin (lost his title to Rashad Evans at UFC 92)

Sense a pattern on those last four?

May of you might be thinking "Well, so what, you cannot stay champion forever." That is true, but many fighters have also lost and regained titles as well.

Another partial list:

Tim Sylvia: He was stripped of the his first belt after a failed PED test in 2004, then lost to Frank Mir at UFC 48 for the title. He then lost to Andrei Arlovski at UFC 51 for an interim belt. He then beat Arlovski at UFC 59 to regain the title, then lost it again at UFC 68.

B.J. Penn: He won the title at UFC 46 and then lost it at UFC 63. He then won the Lightweight Title at UFC 80 and then lost it to Frankie Edgar at UFC 112.

Randy Couture: He won and lost the title several times in two different weight classes.

The point here is that winning the title is one thing, defending it is another. And losing it and regaining is is one of the hardest thing to do in MMA, period.

Saturday night, Junior dos Santos takes his first step back to the title himself after losing to Cain Velasquez back at UFC 155. He is fighting Mark Hunt and that is a fight he should easily win if he fights the way he is capable of. Melvin Manhoef did KO Hunt in 2008, and if you have not seen the fight, find it. It is shocking. JDS has good enough wrestling to keep the fight standing against Hunt and win a decision victory.

Can he realistically win his way back to a UFC Heavyweight Title? The answer is 100% yes. He was undefeated until he lost to Velasquez and the rubber match should be an all time great fight. Assuming Velasquez gets by Bigfoot Silva this Saturday, and JDS gets by Hunt that night as well, this could set up their third meeting.

What does JDS need to do to win back his title? He needs to continue to get better and train off his back. He was never really in a position before the Velasquez fight to fight off of his back. If he is again not ready for the ground, he will lose. Velasquez is too good a grappler not to get JDS on the ground. I think a good game plan for Junior would include being offensive with take downs. He does not have to be successful with the takedown attempts, just get Velasquez's respect so he can keep the fight on the feet as much as possible.

If he can do these things, he can and will win the UFC Heavyweight Title again. As evidenced by those who have tried before him, this may be a long shot. But all he can do is continue to win and get better and let the rest take care of itself.

Please send me love, hate and fan letters to erichobaugh@gmail.com

[Junior dos Santos art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]

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