UFC
UFC 141: UFC Champ Junior dos Santos "surprised" by Brock Lesnar's performance, excited for striker battle with Alistair Overeem
Dec 31, 2011 - 5:15:47 PM UFC 141: UFC Champ Junior dos Santos "surprised" by Brock Lesnar's performance, excited for striker battle with Alistair Overeem

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Prior to UFC 141, UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior dos Santos believed Brock Lesnar would be able to use his wrestling game to wear out Alistair Overeem, so Lesnar's performance on Friday night was as baffling to dos Santos as it was to many others.

"Brock seemed a little bit anxious to throw punches and kicks," Dos Santos said in an interview with USA Today. "That surprised me, because I thought he should have taken Alistair down and kept the fight on the ground."

Lesnar is facing the same type of criticism dos Santos' last opponent, Cain Velasquez, received in November when he failed to take dos Santos down before getting knocked out. Still, dos Santos doesn't have any disappointment in the resulting outcome, as he's still got a very exciting matchup with Overeem ahead of him in 2012.

"It's going to be really, really good for the fans," Dos Santos said. "Because he's a striker (and) I'm a striker, it's going to be a stand-up battle."

"He's pretty good at using his kicks, his knees, his punches. But I believe so much in my boxing."

As soon as dos Santos is ready to return, he and Overeem will square off in what should be a massive Heavyweight Championship fight.

Penick's Analysis: Instead of improvement, Lesnar seemed to have regressed a bit in the 14 months since his fight with Velasquez, and it caught a lot of people off guard. Dos Santos now will not get the high profile fight with Lesnar that he was due in June, but he has to hope that some of Lesnar's star will rub off on Overeem for their matchup to make it another massive event. He's a fantastic Champion, and the fight with Overeem is an excellent and dangerous test for his first title defense next year. With the performances both fighters had here to close out 2011, they'll come into their bout in 2012 with a lot of momentum.

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