Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos to headline UFC on Fox Debut
Posted on September 2, 2011, 12:44 PM by Joey Santosus
UFC President Dana White made his highly anticipated announcement today, revealing the monumental headlining bout for the promotion's debut fight on the FOX network. After much speculation, White jumped right into it, announcing that the match-up contested would be for the most prestigious Championship in all of sports: The Heavyweight Title.
Current Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez and challenger Junior dos Santos will go head to head in a five-round affair on
November 12th from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California and will be featured LIVE on the FOX network.
Following the announcement, White opened for questions.
Additional Details:
• This Heavyweight match-up is going to be a great fight!
• We had so many choices. Obviously, do you go with the pound for pound best fighter? Timing is a big issue, Anderson Silva is coming off a big fight. We were kicking a lot of things around, but the no-brainer was right in front of us: The Heavyweight Championship.
• The San Jose card is still going on.
• We're working on Brazil. You know how successful that card was.
• One fight will be featured. One hour show, five-round Championship fight.
• Obviously these guys were supposed to be on pay-per-view, but for these guys to take the fight they are being paid very well. They're more than happy to take the fight. Both guys were so excited to be fighting on the first FOX card.
• The Heavyweight title is the most prestigious title in sports. Junior dos Santos has great takedown defense. Both guys have great power, you saw what Cain was able to do to Brock Lesnar. Cain's gameplan will probably be to take JDS down, if he can its going to be interesting because we've never seen JDS there. He's a Nogueira black-belt, but he's never had to implement it.
• Tickets on sale Sept. 16
• We wanted to go out with our best foot forward. The way we are looking at this thing, there are going to be millions of people tuning-in that have never seen it before.
• We are going to need some time to set up the whole UFC on FOX thing. That's why it was done this way.
• The fans won't notice a difference, it will be just like any other pay-per-view.
• Undercard fights will air somewhere, not figured out yet.
• Having a free fight on FOX leading into a pay-per-view the next week sure doesn't "suck."
• Still negotiating where the fight is going to be shown in the U.K. We would love to be with FOX over in the U.K. Once the current deal expires, we'll figure out that piece of the puzzle.
• What will be done if the fight ends in the first round is still "a work in progress." But we're talking about how to handle that. What we'll probably do is fill out the rest of the night with a replay of the fight or a "best of the night" depending on how much time we have left.
• Working on San Jose card fights now.
• It was the easiest conversation I've ever had yanking guys off pay-per-view to be on television. They couldn't be more excited, they know what this means for the UFC, the sport, and their careers.
• There will be a mini-pregame show before the fight. (Fox) is very happy with the way the UFC does production, so we'll leave well enough alone.
• It will be ala Superbowl red carpet with a huge event outside.
• We're not mainstream, FOX is giving us the opportunity to go mainstream. It's not time to pat ourselves on the back, its time to work harder than ever.
• It is going to be the event of all events.
• Cain Velasquez is trending World-Wide on Twitter right now.
• When is the last time you saw either Cain Velasquez or Junior dos Santos in a boring fight? I am literally betting everything that's not going to happen.
• Kimbo Slice did 5 Million viewers on The Ultimate Fighter. I'm expecting us to blow that out of the water.
• Brock Lesnar retirement rumors are ridiculous and completely untrue. He's 100%
• Junior dos Santos' manager has text me 57,000 times during this call. That's how excited they are.
• This is our Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar. I have no doubt these guys will deliver.
Comments
I guess this is what Dana means when he says "he'll make it up to us" thank you Dana for a great main event on free T.V. - btw I got Cain by third round TKO
I do feel back for the November 19 card losing this fight. If the UFC could fill that main event with Mir vs. Overeem I think it would be an acceptable substitute for most fans.
i honestly have no idea whos taking this one home! Both fighters are ridiculously scary!
I personally can't predict the outcome of this fight. Cain and JDS and superior athletes in their prime. Both are very confident after their devastating wins over worthy opponents...This super fight will definitely answer the question of who is the baddest HW fight in the world today...I just wish the fight won't end too quickly, so that we can see the full display of these fighters' skills...Should another mega fight like that of the Reem VS Brock be the listed as well, the UFC will score big and attract more fans than ever...
and I got Junior by second round TKO
Damn.... I was hoping 4 a Kendall "Da Spyda' Grove vs. Anderson"Spider' Silva, & they called it THE BATTLE OF THE ARACHNIDS.
Not sure about the HW title being the most prestigious, but I'm glad Cain is back and we know when the best two heavyweights in the world will fight.
Of course is the most prestigious title!
its the Heavyweights the best fighters in the world!
who ever wins will be the best MMA fighter in the planet.
HW are not as talented as LW,WW, or FW imo. This whole HW being the most prestigious title comes from boxing. The UFC's LW and WW titles have had better champions imo. Look at that Faber v Cruz match for example what are the chances of two heavy weights keeping up that pace and showing that kind of talent over 5 rounds. Better over 3 rounds you rarely get that quality fight at HW. JDS v Carwin is a great example of that, that was awful.
No they won't. None of them even approach the skill of a Jose Aldo or an Anderson Silva or GSP. The middle of the pack LHWs are more skilled than those guys. The HW division is. always has been and always will be the weakest division.
I agree. If anything the HW title is the least prestigious title. It is the least talented division.
quote "the most prestigious Championship in all of sports: The Heavyweight Title. "
ALL SPORTS not UFC... its a FACT that the Heavyweight Title pulls the most numbers OVERALL.
I completely disagree, lightweight maybe, edgar? really? lol.. when was the last time he knocked someone out, even a tko.. he runs around like hes 12. Velasquez is a beast, easily top 10, junior dos santos is a monster, overeem possibly if they pick him up, along with a wrestling criqitue that lesnar has, guys well rounded like mir and carwin, an mma legend big nog... a very entertaining division. It looks promising
so its just a 1 hr show with 1 fight? are all the fox events going to be like that?
Yeah good question. Originally, they said the Fox events would have 2 fights in the 1 hour. Now they're saying Cain vs JDS will be the only fight on the first event because it's a 5 round title fight. However, all main card fights are supposed to be 5 rounds from here on out.... so I don't see that being a valid reason anymore...?
that is the deal with fox shows?? only one fight per show??? i think thats terrible for mma
I hope they don't try to make it too T.V. friendly by stopping fights prematurely in attempt to make the sport look less violent to new viewer's.
They're doing this because of the big boxing event right after, they hope to get some boxing fan's eyes on the UFC product before the pacquiao fight comes on. Its a smart move and the fight should be good considering how exciting JDS and Cain are.
Can't wait to see how this presentation is going to look! cain and dos santos' is a great start to this new era in MMA.
Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos
Cant wait for this fight, both of them are great fighters but i have to go with Cain because i think he has a better Cardio. And that will play a very important role in this fight
Better cardio and wrestling. However shoulder injuries can affect guys well after they have had surgery and ''recovered''. I just wonder if he'll look like the same fighter against JDS.
I like both fighters. Those two are the real fighters. I would take Dos Santos, he can keep the distance and strike just like he did with Carwin. Cain is not that powerfull to take and keep JDS down. JDS has a good cardio also. Should be interesting.
The one fight thing sucks. I hope they put the under card on spike or Versus.
prelims on facebook more likely. Zuffa doesn't give a crap about spike anymore. Is Bellator taking the open slot in spike's programming or sticking with mtv2? Does anyone know?
Heavyweight fight of all time! Cause Fedor hasen't been on top lately.
if its because only of the paquiao fight then its a smart thing to do. i hope its just a one time thing... and about cain not being that powerfull to take and keep JDS down!! if someone thinks that a 100% cain cant do that he has never watched one single minute of his fights
if this fight goes 3 rounds it will be definetly candidate for fight of the year
Another smart move by the UFC
UFC delivers!
This is a big, "I told you I would deliver." from Dana. He stated all along to NBC (Who he originally tried to sign with), "You sign the UFC we will bring you viewers. Well Fox is about to blow up with more viewers. Between this and NFL starting up, things are about to get interesting.
UFC on Saturday night, Chargers on Sunday morning. Man, I better go get more beer.
Only scheduled for one hour...
well this fight could go either way. Hope they have another exciting matchup for after this fight in case its a short one. Dan Henderson vs Shogun or Machida would be a sick co-main but I doubt they'll stack the card with too many big names. Lot of talent freed up for the end of the year's mega cards.
HVW title fights pull more cause pl expect a BIG knockout , & i could see cain taking this with wrestling but JDS is my fav of all time so i hope he gets ah tko possibly ah sub .