Junior dos Santos Out of Miocic Fight

UFC Heavyweight and former champion, Junior dos Santos, is being forced to pull out of his TUF Brazil 3 bout with Stipe Miocic.  It seems that Junior dos Santos has developed a hand injury during training for the fight.  As of right now, there hasn't been a replacement opponent to face Miocic.

UFC 173: Junior dos Santos Returns Against Miocic and Other Bouts!

UFC 173 is shaping up to be a solid card just in time for the summer as Lyoto Machida has stepped up to face UFC Chris Weidman for the UFC Middleweight Championship.  A huge fight has been added to what was already an attractive fight.  The UFC has confirmed that former UFC champ Junior dos Santos will be facing fellow heavyweight striker Stipe Miocic in Las Vegas this May.

Both men represent the cream of the crop in the UFC's Heavyweight Division and are outstanding strikers.  The biggest question that comes to mind when I heard about this fight is how much has JDS improved his wrestling since getting throttled by Cain Velasquez in their las bout this past October.  It makes one wonder if he will be able to handle Miocic's elite wrestling.  Like Velasquez, Miocic comes from a very high caliber wrestling background.  I love to see a good grappling match or clinch fight, but between two men with accurate heat-seeking missiles like the two of them, I hope the fight stays on the feet.  Both men have technical striking plus power.

Who wins at UFC 173?

Junior dos Santos

Stipe Miocic

Poll Maker

Below is the list of confirmed bouts scheduled to take place on May 24, 2014:

UFC 173 Fight Card*

Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida
Junior Dos Santos vs. Stipe Mioci
Jamie Varner vs. James Krause
T.J. Dillashaw vs. Takeya Mizugaki
Tony Ferguson vs. Katsunori Kikuno
Chris Holdsworth vs. Kyung Ho Kang
Doo Ho Choi vs. Sam Sicilia
Al Iaquinta vs. Mitch Clarke
Mike Chiesa vs. Francisco Trinaldo
Yves Edwards vs. Piotr Hallmann 

* as of 3/4/14. Card subject to change

Dos Santos Wants a Fourth Fight with Cain, Plans Summer Return

Former UFC Champion, Junior dos Santos is expected to make his UFC return sometime in this summer, but there has not been an opponent announced.  The UFC offered Alistair Overeem as an opponent for him, but Overeem turned down the fight due to an injury.  Junior dos Santos wants to pick up a few more wins so that he can feel that he is truly deserving of a title shot and challenge the current Heavyweight Champion, Cain Velasquez.

The two men have already fought a total of three times. Dos Santos took the title from Velasquez in the very first UFC on Fox event. Dos Santos was able to TKO Velasquez very shortly after the start of the first round. The two men then met for a second time at UFC 155 in which Velasquez punished dos Santos for five rounds with great wrestling and clinch-striking. Velasquez then followed up with another punishing victory that led to a TKO stoppage at UFC 166.

If asked if I would love to see the two men fight again, I would probably say yes. Contrary to some of the fans believing that Cain's victories over JDS were boring, I saw them as complete demonstrations of power and skill on by Velasquez.  It would be interesting to see if dos Santos is able to improve to a level that he is able to avoid taking so much punishment and neutralize Cain's wrestling.  There are a few matches to make if the Overeem fight doesn't ever materialize. I wouldn't mind seeing the loser of the matchup between Fabricio Werdum and Travis Browne.  JDS holds a win over Werdum that single-handedly pulled Werdum out of the title picture when he was making his first run at the title. I would love to see a rematch between the two of them, but I also wouldn't mind seeing a striking match between dos Santos and Browne. I think Browne's speend and footwork could frustrate dos Santos amd pose an interesting challenge.  I also wouldn't mind seeing a red-hot and hungry Stipe Miocic trade blows with JDS.

Overeem Not Ready for JDS

It has been reported that former Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem has turned down a fight with former UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior Dos Santos, who is expected to return sometime in May of this year. Overeem and JDS we're originally scheduled to fight for Dos Santos' belt at after Overeem overwhelmed Brock Lesner in their clash for the number one contender spot. The fight was later scrapped, when Overeem was suspended for the use of PEDs following his fight with Lesner. This time around the fight may not occur due to an injury that Overeem is claiming to claiming to have.

Overeem says that an injury is keeping him from facing Junior Dos Santos and many believe that he is just scared of JDS. I believe the injury is legitimate considering Overeem's toughness. Overeem has no reason to run from JDS. Overeem has faced some of the toughest guys in the world in his MMA career as well as his kickboxing career.  I really hope that this fight can come together sometime soon because I believe that it is the biggest fight that the UFC has available with the champ Cain Velasquez out due to a shoulder injury.  The fight would be perhaps one of the biggest fights between two strikers in the UFC Heavyweight division. It would pit JDS's pure power boxing against Overeem's many striking tools.

Overeem has more tools at his disposal in the striking and clinch game, but I give the greater KO power to Junior Dos Santos.  This is a dream fight for the fans as long as Overeem doesn't go out there to "not lose" and pressures Dos Santos.

UFC 166 Results

Main Card:

Cain Velasquez def. Junior dos Santos via fifth-round TKO
Daniel Cormier def. Roy Nelson via unanimous decision
Gilbert Melendez def. Diego Sanchez via unanimous decision
Gabriel Gonzaga def. Shawn Jordan via first-round TKO
John Dodson def. Darrell Montague via first-round KO

Preliminary Card:

Tim Boetsch def. C.B. Dollaway via split decision
Hector Lombard def. Nate Marquardt via first-round KO
Jessica Eye def. Sarah Kaufman via split decision
KJ Noons def. George Sotiropoulos via unanimous decision
Adlan Amagov def. TJ Waldburger via first-round KO
Tony Ferguson def. Mike Rio via submission (D'Arce choke)
Andre Fili def. Jeremy Larsen via second-round TKO
Kyoji Horiguchi def. Dustin Pague via second-round TKO

What a night of fights tonight at UFC 166! The night began with John Dodson squaring off with UFC newcomer, Darrell Montague in the UFC Flyweight Division.  John Dodson was able to outwork Montague on the feet dropping him to the canvas before inevitably being KO'd in the first round.

The night then went from the lightest division in the UFC to the heaviest division.  Shawn Jordan and Gabriel Gonzaga met in the center of the cage to engage in a stand up war in the Heavyweight division.  The match had a feeling out process until Gonzaga connected with the hands and landed on Jordan and also earning a first round KO in his fight tonight.

The next fight was between two talented UFC Lightweights, Gilbert Melendez and Diego Sanchez.  It was a fight in which Melendez began the first round out-classing Sanchez in a very dominate round.  In the second and third rounds of the fight, both men went into complete brawl mode with both men swinging for the fences.  The difference between the two fighters was Melendez seemed to never lose his technical edge even during the wild exchanges, Melendez was still connecting with his clean boxing and great movement. If there was one word to describe the third round of the fight, it would be fireworks!  Melendez won a unanimous decision in a classic fight in the UFC Lightweight Division. "That's the greatest fight I've ever seen in my life," were the word that came out of the mouth of Joe Rogan after the fight.

Next was a fight between to top Heavyweights as Roy Nelson would be set to fight undefeated heavyweight Daniel Cormier.  Cormier was able to out-grapple Nelson for all three rounds and even use his speed to actually beat Nelson on the feet as well.  Cormier won an obvious unanimous decision.

In the final fight of the evening we saw a battle between the perfect forms of both of the main event fighters as the clashed for the third time in the UFC.  Cain Velasquez used the same strategy that he used in their second fight.  Cain used his amazing rappling to pin Junior against the cage for over 20 minutes but showed improved striking to help aid him in taking out the documented better striker.  Dos Santos showed improved wrestling by defending most of Velasquez's takedowns.  After a grueling 20 plus minutes of battling, Velasquez was able to pull off a TKO victory due to strikes.

UFC 166 Weigh-in Results PLUS Predictions!

Main Card:
Junior Dos Santos (240) VS Cain Velasquez (241)
Roy Nelson (249) VS Daniel Cormier (224)
Diego Sanchez (156) VS Gilbert Melendez (156)
Shawn Jordan (255) VS Gabriel Gonzaga (257)
Darrell Montague (126) VS John Dodson (125)

Preliminary Card:
Tim Boetsch (186) VS CB Dollaway (186)
Hector Lombard (169) VS Nate Marquardt (171)
Jessica Eye (135) VS Sarah Kaufman (135)
KJ Noons (156) VS George Sotiropoulos (155)
Adlan Amagov (171) VS TJ Waldburger (170.5)
Mike Rio (156) VS Tony Ferguson (155)
Jeremy Larsen (145.5) VS Andre Fili (148.5)
Kyoji Horiguchi (135) vs Dustin Pague (135)

UFC 166 is going to be a HUGE night for the UFC Heavyweight division with the final chapter of the Velasquez-Dos Santos saga scheduled for tomorrow night at 10pm eastern time.  Velasquez and Dos Santos have exchanged the UFC title between the two of them over the last two years.  Tomorrow night only one man can leave as the UFC Heavyweight Champion.  In October of 2010, Cain Velasquez defeated Brock Lesnar to gain the UFC Heavyweight Championship.  A year later in the same city where he won the title, a hungry Junior Dos Santos came in and took the title from Velasquez in his first match after winning the title.  A year later the UFC granted Velasquez the opportunity to prove that his title win was not a fluke and Cain Velasquez did more than deliver in the rematch in which he strategically dismantled Dos Santos for 25 whole minutes.  After that meeting last year, Junior Dos Santos took on and knocked out fan favorite Mark Hunt, which earned him another chance to face Velasquez.  If this match turns out to be everything that it could be, then we are in for a real treat.  The question becomes, will it be Dos Santos' power punching or Velasquez's cerebral approach that will win the fight?

Predictions for the Event via MMATakedown.net: