UFC President Dana White on Friday announced that Cain Velasquez will make the first defense of his heavyweight title against Junior Dos Santos on the inaugural UFC on FOX broadcast. Dana White said "We want to deliver to our partners and fans and really kick it off with a bang, What better way to kick it off than with a heavyweight title fight?" in a very surprising but extremely smart business decision the UFC decided to show the Heavyweight Title fight between Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos for free on FOX.
This type of match up could wind up being one of the best Heavyweight match ups of all time. This would be one of the top 5 match ups in any weight class this year and would easily garner solid pay per view numbers. Interestingly enough, instead of trying to max out the short term money on getting quick pay per view dollars, the UFC smartly invested in long term by scheduling one of its best match-ups and add value to its newly found partnership with a major television network FOX. UFC Media Call: Dana White Announces Velasquez vs. Dos Santos on FOX.
This is why the UFC is the premiere company in MMA. They got on cable television and did a deal with spike TV and created a reality show to help expose their brand to the public on free tv. Then, years later, they were able to solidify a deal with a Major television network with FOX. Most importantly, they were smart enough to really give the first time viewers on FOX potentially one of the great bouts in the history of the heavyweight division.
Some organizations don't have the foresight to give something valuable away for free to show viewers the best their sport has to offer. They will only show B-level fights on network television. What the UFC knows all to well is that if these two fighters put on a great fight the people that watched the sport for the first time are much more likely to shell out the $60 for the next time either of them are headlining a pay per view event. This is what sets the UFC's philosophy so far away from what I remember with boxing. The only thing that could derail this great first time event on FOX is some sort of injury to one of the fighters (let's just hope nothing like this happens to ruin this inaugural event), but other than that it should be the start of a very good relationship between the UFC and FOX broadcast network.
As for the fighters themselves they sport very impressive records with only one loss between both fighters. Junior Dos Santos was submitted by an arm bar back in 2007 by Joaquim Ferreira for his only loss and this was before he began his career with the UFC. Cain Velasquez is not only undefeated, but he has been an absolute terror in the ring. While he has only had 9 fights under his belt so far, only one fight went to a decision and that was back in 2009 vs Cheick Kongo. Of the 8 remaining fights 7 were finished by TKO and 1 by KO.
There is nothing like having an undefeated heavyweight fighter and in the world of MMA this is not a common occurrence. If it were not for Cains recent injury of his torn rotator cuff he should be the favorite to win this fight. As we have seen before coming off a serious injury and a long lay off can put on some ring rust on any fighter. The way the UFC works is you fight the best fighters all the time and there is no time to take a couple of easy fights to get back into the groove.
Shane Carwin found this out all to quickly when he first returned after major back surgery. His first opponent when he came back into the octagon was none other than Junior Dos Santos. Unfortunately for Carwin, Junior Dos Santos was in top form and nearly ended the fight in the very first round bloodying Carwins face so severely it was 50/50 on if the Doctor working the fight would allow it to continue. The fight did end in a unanimous decision for Junior Dos Santos, but the fight was never really in doubt from very early in the first round.
So this first main event on FOX really could be a coin toss for who would win. They are both that good. If Cain is healthy though he should be the favorite to retain the title, but if not then Junior Dos Santos should be favored in the fight. Here are two videos one of each fighter to get an idea of their skills inside the Octagon: Cain Velasquez Highlights with Brock Lesnar footage at the end of the video
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