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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Junior Dos Santos earned a shot at the UFC Heavyweight Champion in 2011 on Saturday night, defeating The Ultimate Fighter's tenth season winner Roy "Big Country" Nelson at UFC 117.
The one sided fight saw Dos Santos put quite a beating on an extremely tough and resilient Nelson, who hung in the fight despite being rocked early and often by the dangerous Brazilian striker. It was a great display of power from Dos Santos, and although Nelson did an excellent job covering up from the brunt of the damage, Dos Santos showed that he can stay on the offensive for three rounds.
Now comes his real test. Dos Santos will now await the winner of the fight between Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez, set to take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. on October 23. He'll meet the winner sometime early in 2011 depending on any injury layoffs, and after the toughness showed by Nelson in being the first fighter in the UFC to push him to the judges' scorecards, Dos Santos will be in for a massive challenge.
Penick's Analysis: Dos Santos will learn a ton from this fight. Nelson was able to cover up and absorb a ton of punishment in order to attempt to exhaust Dos Santos or make Dos Santos punch himself out. That didn't happen, though it came close, and Dos Santos continued throwing punches until the end. But his inability to finish Nelson, coupled with his tiring late in the fight, concerns me in a matchup against either Velasquez or Lesnar.
Both of those fighters are much more likely to be able to bring the fight to the ground, and we've seen both fighters take a ton of punishment, only to come back and win in their careers. In a five round fight, I'd favor the winner of October's bout right now over Dos Santos, if only because I believe in both of those fighters' ability to take what Dos Santos can dish out and still wear him down through a five round fight. But keep in mind he will improve between now and that fight, so it will make for an excellent Heavyweight Championship bout regardless of who makes it out of UFC 121 the Champ.
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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