UFC 131 Recap: Junior dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez is up next
Posted on June 12, 2011, 12:11 AM by Ryan VenturaWith NHL Stanley Cup fever in Vancouver, the city was in a festive mood in anticipation for the UFC 131 main event between Shane Carwin and Junior dos Santos. The winner of the bout would get a UFC Heavyweight title shot against the current champion Cain Velasquez. Originally JDS was supposed face Brock Lesnar the opposing coach from season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter, but due to Lesnar's diagnosis of diverticulitis he had to pull out of the fight. Junior before knowing Carwin would be his opponent was busy sharpening up his wrestling abilities and Carwin was focused on being a better conditioned fighter.
Today two of some of the best Heavyweights in MMA squared off and it quickly turned into a one-sided affair. Using his speed, angles, and more technical boxing the man they call 'Cigano' showed off the performance of his career. Anyone who is familiar with both men's body of work know very well that their fights don't last. This one went the distance. Carwin tried to takedown dos Santos numerous times but to no avail. With a combination of jabs, hooks, wonderful head movement, and superior foot work, the Brazilian was able to turn the Engineer's face into a crimson red. Late in the third round with Shane's gas tank close to empty, dos Santos surprised everyone by taking down the NCAA Division II wrestling. At the end of the night Junior's hand was raised in victory with Cain Velasquez waiting in shadows.
Questions after seeing JDS vs. Carwin:
-Can dos Santos handle Cain's wrestling and technical striking?
-Who is next for Shane Carwin?
-Should the winner of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix face the winner of JDS vs. Cain?
Notes from UFC 131:
-Kenny Florian put on a wonderful performance against the exciting Diego Nunes. I expect Diego to be better after this fight and I see Kenny getting his shot after two more fights at Featherweight.
-Mark Munoz showcased some wonderful ground game and hung with an elite BJJ artist in Demian Maia. Within a few fights you might consider Munoz in the title picture but as long as Anderson Silva wears the belt he won't challenge for it.
-Jon Olav Einemo and Dave Herman was an all out war. I was surprised by JOE's recklessness in the striking department knowing he trains closely with Alistair Overeem and the Golden Glory camp. It's back to the drawing board for him.
-Donald Cerrone showcased some wonderful all-around skills against Vagner Rocha. The Jackson's Camp fighter is another threat in an already stacked Lightweight division.
Lowkick.com UFC 131 main card awards:
Fight of the Night - Kenny Florian and Diego Nunes showcased some wonderful skills on both the feet and ground for three rounds.
Performance of the Night - Junior dos Santos gave us the performance of a lifetime showcasing much more technical boxing and a very much improved wrestling game.
Finish of the Night - Ed Herman's 2nd round TKO victory was one that had the Rogers Arena in Vancouver on it's feet.
Disapointment of the Night - Demian Maia was outclassed by Munoz. He had his moments but on paper it looked like he was the better fighter than The Filipino Wrecking Machine.
Notable mention - Sam Stout's KO of Yves Edwards is possibly the KO of 2011.
Photo: MMAWeekly.com
Comments
I agree with mostly everything but in no way did I see Maia as a disappointment. He actually surprised me with his striking. you underestimated Munoz but Maia definitely didn't disapoint
I still think he won that fight !
wonderful
I agree that Maia as a whole was a dissapointment, but his striking is far improved, which is a very big thing for him.
2 more fights for Ken Flo? His next fight may be for the belt
Yeah, Maia as 'dissapointment of the night' seems pretty silly. Going by Compu-Strike he actually won that fight. Plus, his standup looked way better.
On a lighter note - JDS has some pretty nasty hands, and has some pretty underrated wrestling; never in a million years would I of thought he would of actually took Carwin down never mind be able to. Great performance. Still finding it hard who to pick between him and Cain though. Right now I give a slight edge to JDS, just because he's been more active, and seems to have prtty good TD defense.
Also, Kenny looked pretty sharp at 145lb, good performance even though he didn't get the finish. I'd like to see him against Aldo, think he matches up well with'em. Kenflo has good Td's too and good ground game.
Expected Herman to win, seeing that JOE hasn't competed in years. Decent scrap, but I thought the Dustin Poirier fight was great; really entertaining. Same with Cerrone, expected him to get the W. Solid card.
How did he "win" on compustrike? C'mon Jamie, you know that MMA is about more than strikes.
He won on Fightmetric aswell with their method of deciding fights. And for the 10 round must system it was a draw.
I think everyone can agree that Maia won the first round, Munoz the second. And then the third is where most people disagree.
Joey- Yeah, I meant FightMetric, same difference. Check out the stats for yourself.
I reall don't think that was the ko of 2011. It was a good hook to the chin and all but machida' crane kick is a bit more impressive, then we have AS ko by front kick too. As far as how far out Edwards was that may be true.
The Herman fight was the highlight for me of a great night of action.
When I saw the card I was not too impressed but I think it was on a par with 130 which was also excellent in terms of action and good fights.
JDS: What can I say. I thought Carwin would smash JDS within a round but JDS made him look like a tortoise which was very surprising. Most impressive about JDS was his footwrok, not his hands which was excellent throughout, but I was shocked Carwin was so outclassed. Some folks called it that way but I was totally wrong on backing Carwin to dominate thinking his power would be too much for JDS. JDS also showed he is very strong grappling as he stopped several takedown attempts and was up very fast when he was on the ground.
I didnt give JDS much chance against Carwin or Cain, but cannot say that anymore, great performance by the Brazilian.
PS: About Maia, i thought he actually squeaked a close fight. He got dominated for 1 round but dominated the first and I thought he took the last but he was not disappointing. His improvement is on a par with Jake Shields and if he can keep his focus a bit more when trading has great potential.
PPS: How ****ing tough is Carwin btw!!!!
PPPS: man, you have really a lot to say, and I have hangover, please.
so many suprises on this card Sam stout KO, Maias striking Main event went to decision.
One thing about Carwin last night, he looked so uncomfortable JDS made him look like brock lesnar in the Valasquez fight
Herman and Einemo put on a great fight, for me that was fight of the night and I think Maia won the fight, how can you lable him as the disapointment of the night, that's silly. Proops to Cerrone too, the ligtweight division has so much amount of talent, that's yust crazy.
I still tthink Yves Edwards won that fight!
the 2 best fights of the night IMO were Joey Beltran/ Aaron Rosa and of cource Dave "Pee Wee" Herman (Who actually looks like Pee Wee Herman) and Jon Olav Einemo. And I figured that the story of the night would be either JDS's speed or Carwin's power, but Carwin's power was innefective since he wasn't able to hit him.
The Poirier fight was probably the best fight overall for technical skill and cometitiveness, but the Herman fight was just pure quality in terms of back and forth action. herman left the impression he could be far better if he was more aggressive.he only seemed to get going proper when he was almost out.
Ok everybody regarding Maia being my disappointment of the night. I was actually at the fights last night and I might have seen it differently from all of you. Judging from what my eyes saw he didn't look that great and I'm going to watch it again on PVR. I'm pretty sure you guys are all right and I made a mistake saying he was my disappointment of the night.
But all these awards and predictions I always say this are simply subjective. My opinion on how someone did doesn't have that much weight and we should be happy that we all can talk about this / debate it.
You did pretty good all around. Maia's striking was very impressive considering... He did, however, lose the fight. He won the first round clearly, but in the second and third the striking was close and, therefore, the wrestling and control showed by Munoz has to be considered the deciding factor.
That would have been big if dos Santos finished carwin in the first round
omg first thing i see on this article "Can dos Santos handle Cain's wrestling and technical striking?" are you f*king kidding? cain will not be able to hang with jds on the feet, i can garauntee it. hes a good striker but not great, he closes his eyes when he throws combinations, somthing dossantos doesnt do. wether cain can controll jds with is wrestling or not will probably be the story of the fight. junior is the best striker in the ufc heavywhheight division and in my opinion it is between him nd overeem for best HW striker in mma.
Best heavyweight in UFC is JDS. I like to see
by end of next year JDS vs Overeem or JDS vs Sergei Karitonov. I think this two Strikeforce heavyweight fighters are only strikers can win or knockout Junior Dos Santos. All other UFC
heavyweight fighters are way overrated by Dana
hype machine.
Nuff said.
cain has the best wrestling in the HW division. lets see him handle that.
DISSAPOINTING? HELL NO maia was cool
i also think maia won, i mean most of the time he was trying to get guard and he kicked munoz ass in the first round.