This event was held in Aniheim CA on October 23rd 2010. I considered this a stacked card. Some of my favorite fighters.
Gaberial Gonzaga vs Brendan Schaub
I think we saw in this fight that Gonzaga’s best days could be behind him. His gameplan was completely flawed. If something doesn’t work in the first round, why keep doing it? Brendan showed that he’s got some great striking and earned a big win. I found out laer that after this fight Gonzaga was released by the UFC. After seeing someone that was a former top contender he just didn’t have what it takes in the end. He’ll probably sign with Strikeforce and continue fighting for some time. As for Schuab of course things are looking good. He’s looked good in his past several fights and I think the win here wil put him in the mix in the heavyweight division.
Diego Sanchez vs. Paulo Tiiego
I love Diego. I think he’s a great Christian fighter with a ton of heart and a fighters spirit. It looked like after the first round that Diego could lose this fight, but he turned it up in the later rounds. Paulo ran out of gas and Diego was just relentless and started swarming all over him. I think this says a lot about where Diego is right now; he mentioned in the post fight press conference that he has his ind straight and his goals realigned. He said that he hasn’t always trained as hard as he could have and that he’s refocused now. @danawhite has said that he looks good and he loves to see him fight. He mentioned he loves his attitude and the fighting spirit he brings to the table.
Jake Shields vs Martin Kampmann
I was so glad when I heard that Shiields had signed with UFC early this year. He’s been taking out guys left and right in the other orgs and he needed to come to the UFC and plug-in to see where he matches up. I didn’t know till I saw this fight that he was competing at Welterweight! I heard Joe Rogan say how bad he looked at the weigh-ins and that the weight cut had been hard for him. Kampmann looked like a good matchup for him though. Kamp’s been around a long time and was good test. I would like to see Shields develop some striking. Even though we saw him get tired and gas early he was able to display some great grappling and ju-jitsu. He’s been promised a title shot now that he’s won the fight. I don’t see him posing any threat to Georges St. Pierre though.
Brock Lesnar vs Cain Velasquez
I really didn’t know what was going to happen in this fight. I realy think a lot of people didn’t know. I mean Cain has been going through guys and knocking them out and submitting him. We know he has conditioning unlike Shane Carwin. We saw him pick his shots and not go crazy like the Carwin fight. Then again BL ia BL He’s this giant of a human being and you wonder if he’s been training his striking or has he improved. It seemed like he was able to take a punch from his lat fight so how does that apply to Cain? Well, what we saw is that Lesnar cannot tae a punch. We did see this alittle in the Carwin fight but to be honest to be such a big guy when Cain starts punching him in the face he has no idea what to do and we saw him ball up in the fetal position like a six year old. Now me personally, I would have done the same thing, but then again I’m not the UFC Heavy weight Champion that runs my mouth. Cain was able to get back up after Brock’s take downs; he was able to defend take downs and really put in some damage.
So where does leave the heavy weight division? Joe Rogan mentioned that this very well could be the era of Cain. He is 11-0 and has been finishing guys. Some are saying he could be the “Anderson Silva” of the heavy weights. I think we will have to see as his first title defense will be quite a test in Junior dos Santos. Jr is probably his biggest challenge to date as I do not believe we have seen anyone fight like him before. One thing you have to consider is how Junior could not put away Roy Nelson in there last fight. It seems that if it wasn’t for conditioning that Nelson could have won it and I really don’t see Nalson beating Cain any time soon. having said this I would submit that we will see Velasquez defeat dos Santos and Roy Nelson in the future. I think Cain is here to say but then again this is the sport of MMA and you never know. It will be a different fight and Jr has a lot to bring to the table.
