Dos Santos earns himself title shot with win over Nelson
Junior Dos Santos earned himself a shot at the Ultimate Fighting Championships’ heavyweight title on Saturday evening, defeating Roy Nelson at the mixed martial arts promotion’s UFC 117 event in Oakland, California. Two judges scored the bout 30-27, and one had is 30-26, all for the the 25-year-old Brazilian.
Dos Santos used his trademark boxing to pepper Nelson throughout the fight. Dos Santos’ hands were enough to stop such fighters such as Fabricio Werdum, Stefan Struve, Mirko Filipovic, Gilbert Yvel and most recently Gabriel Gonzaga in his UFC career, but Nelson managed to last until the final bell. Nelson, who has heavy hands of his own, refused to quit even though he was getting hurt, continuing to come forward and earning the respect of UFC president Dana White after the fight.
“I take back anything I ever said about the guy,” said White to MMAfighting.com. White had been critical of what he deemed Nelson’s lacklustre performance on The Ultimate Fighter reality show tournament, which Nelson won. Nelson followed up his victory in the show with a spectacular first-round knockout of Struve to earn himself a chance to fight for a title shot.
For Dos Santos, the victory puts him in a title match against the winner of the upcoming title fight between Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez, set to take place at UFC 121. Even though he was successful, he expressed his surprise he wasn’t able to put Nelson away.
“Man, this guy’s tough,” Dos Santos said. “This victory now gives me a title shot. I will fight harder guys than Roy — Brock Lesnar or Cain Velasquez — and I will be ready.”
For Dos Santos, the question that remains is still how good his ground game and wrestling ability is. Simply put, he’s been so successful in knocking other fighters while on his feet nobody’s been able to seriously test his ground skills, which he trains under the legendary Nogueira brothers. Nelson was considered to have posed a threat with his ground game. Nelson made a career out of taking fighters down and using his large belly to pin their arms and either submit them or pound them out.
Against two-top level wrestlers like Velasquez and Lesnar, Dos Santos can be expected to have to defend against the takedown and be prepared to have to work off of his back. He’ll have to hone his skills, but he’s managed to win all but one of his 13 professional fights and now will have his shot at UFC glory.
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