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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Junior dos Santos took an inordinate amount of damage from Cain Velasquez on Saturday night at UFC 166, getting beaten up significantly through the latter half of the fight. It truly should have been stopped in the third round, with Velasquez dropping him and dos Santos looking out on his feet while he absorbed several concussive blows.
Unfortunately, the fight was allowed to continue through to the fifth, where dos Santos was finally stopped after smacking his forehead against the mat on a choke attempt. And though he was interviewed by Joe Rogan after the fight, dos Santos was in bad shape afterward.
According to a report from Brazil's Globo, dos Santos was said at the hospital to not know what happened in the fight. Per the report, dos Santos thought he had been stopped in the second round, and didn't remember the post-fight interview with Rogan. Additionally, his team thought he was essentially on auto-pilot early on after taking some of those shots.
Still, while he was clearly damaged badly by the fight, dos Santos himself was in better spirits at the hospital, joking with the nurses, doctors, and other staff, though he was still disappointed in his performance.
"I'm feeling good. I came to the hospital to give some points on the court that I suffered," dos Santos said (translation via Google Translate). "The pain is only in the heart, for failing to have a good performance in the Octagon. Now the business is back to the gym and train harder, dedicate myself to come back stronger than ever and perhaps one day return to fight for the belt and, God willing, be able to honor the support of all who believe in me."
Penick's Analysis: This is just further support for the idea that this fight needed to be stopped a hell of a lot earlier than it was. Dos Santos was out on his feet and really just fighting on instinct for far too long in that fight, and just thinking about the damage he took after he was already concussed is scary. Serious, serious damage can be done in that situation, and it's the same reason to have concern for Diego Sanchez for the amount of punishment he took without going out cold against Gilbert Melendez. It was a rough night on that front, and dos Santos had some time taken off his career for sure in that fight.
[Junior dos Santos art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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