A UFC Heavyweight Championship rematch between current champion Junior “Cigano” dos Santos and former titleholder Cain Velasquez is in the works for UFC 152 on September 22nd in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. UFC President Dana White confirmed plans for the main event bout on Friday.
Dos Santos captured the title from Velasquez in the featured fight at UFC on FOX 1 in November. Both fighters were battling injuries leading into the first meeting, which dos Santos won by TKO in just 64 seconds, and both are now coming off of dominant stoppage wins at UFC 146 two weeks ago.
Dos Santos (15-1-0) has looked to be borderline unstoppable since making his Octagon debut with an 81-second upset of Fabricio “Vai Cavalo” Werdum in 2008. The standout boxer has finished all but two of his UFC opponents and made short work of the highly-touted Velasquez in November during the UFC’s first event on the FOX television network. Dos Santos was initially set to defend his new title against former Strikeforce and DREAM champ Alistair Overeem this past month, but when Overeem was suspended for elevated levels of testosterone, dos Santos was instead matched up against Frank Mir. He knocked out the jiu-jitsu specialist in the second round and now looks to make it two for two against Velasquez in September. Eleven of dos Santos’s wins have come by knockout.
Velasquez (10-1-0) debuted in the UFC with just two fights on his record, but the powerhouse wrestler quickly gained critical acclaim after finishing five of his first six opponents inside the Octagon. That stretch included a vicious first-round knockout of former PRIDE and UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira at UFC 110. Velasquez captured championship gold in October 2010 by battering an overmatched Brock Lesnar for a TKO victory in just over four minutes at UFC 121. Injuries hindered Velasquez in 2011, however, and he did not return to action until the fateful loss to dos Santos in November. Now recovered, Velasquez stepped back into the cage two weeks ago and mauled Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in one of his most impressive wins to date.
UFC 152 takes place on September 22nd at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The title rematch between dos Santos and Velasquez will likely headline the card.
(Photo Credit: Sherdog.com)