THE CHAMPIONSHIP BELT of the biggest division in the UFC is up for grabs in Las Vegas tonight as heavyweight Junior dos Santos takes on Cain Velasquez once more in the main event.
Joe Lauzon and Jim Miller will look to stake their claims as genuine contenders in the lightweight division while Alan Belcher takes on Yushin Okami in an exciting middleweight clash.
There are also some great match-ups on the preliminary card with Brad Pickett against Eddie Wineland the standout scrap making it a strong event from top to bottom.
Dos Santos looking for repeat performance
It took little over a minute for Junior dos Santos to snatch the UFC heavyweight title off Cain Velasquez back in November 2011 and he has held onto it tightly ever since. Velasquez has recently claimed that he took that fight with an ACL injury but that has done little to diminish the impressiveness of dos Santos’ performance that night. At least Velasquez will have no excuses this time round and will look to take the fight past the first round at the very least. Dos Santos will be relying on another perfectly timed punch to try and take Velasquez out early.
Both men are quite well matched in the stand-up department and if it comes down to conditioning, dos Santos has to be favourite. This could be a very technical battle and the Brazilian’s superior athleticism gives him the edge over his rival.
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Louzon and Miller to push the pace
Joe Louzon’s and Jim Miller’s careers have taken similar paths over the past year or two. Both men strung a number of victories together before being stopped in their tracks by a hard-to-take loss. When you compare both their styles, Louzon’s unpredictability is always a danger for any opponent while Jim Miller’s resolute grittiness makes him very hard to beat.
Their submission games may cancel each other out so the key to the fight could lie in the stand-up battle and the edge could be Miller’s as Louzon has been knocked out a number of times in his career. Elsewhere on the card, Alan Belcher has put together a four fight win streak and will look to continue his good form with a win over Japanese star Yushin Okami.
Belcher has overcome some serious injuries in recent years and come out on the other side looking stronger than he ever culminating in a thoroughly impressive performance over Rousimar Palhares last time out. While Okami is a bigger and stronger middleweight than “The Talent”, Belcher has a much more diverse style and his high confidence levels should help him towards a victory come Saturday.
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In truth, a number of the preliminary fights would have been better placed on the main card ahead of Chris Leben and Derek Brunson’s bout but it should be a blink and you’ll miss it type affair. Leben returns to action after an enforced year out but was outclassed by Mark Munoz in his last outing while Brunson makes his UFC debut despite losing his last two bouts.
Tim Boetsch and Constantinos Philippou complete the main card while the three fights live on facebook as well as most of the preliminaries are definite must-sees.
