Another weekend of fisticuffs has come and gone as UFC 166 blew the roof off the Toyota Center last Saturday night (Oct. 19, 2013) in Houston, Texas.
Many combatants were left licking their wounds after a wild night of fights, including Roy Nelson, who lost his second straight under Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) banner to Daniel Cormier (video here). And Diego Sanchez, who came up short on the judges' scorecard against Gilbert Melendez in a fight that proved to be leading candidate for "Fight of the Year" (highlights here).
But, which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover now two days removed from the show?
Junior dos Santos.
The former UFC heavyweight champion went toe-to-toe against current division kingpin Cain Velasquez for the third time in an attempt to reclaim his 265-pound strap and erase the memory of the beatdown he received at UFC 155 last December.
Mission not accomplished...not even close.
"Cigano," once again, was beaten from pillar to post by Velasquez for another 23 minutes in a performance that erased any and all doubt as to who the best heavyweight in all of mixed martial arts (MMA) truly is. Some may even go as far to say that the loss Junior suffered in "H-Town" was a bit worse than one he suffered in Las Vegas, Nevada.
From the get go, Cain met Junior in the center of the ring and proceeded to begin the punishment, determined to exchange on the feet early on; perhaps to make Dos Santos eat his words for his "hits like a girl" comment. While the fight wasn't the rock-em, sock-em stand-up war like the one Melendez and Sanchez put on earlier, the times it was kept standing, Cain proved the dominant fighter.
After four and a half rounds of dishing out punishment to the Brazilian bomber, Cain was able to earn the technical knockout victory (TKO) -- with the aid of the headbutt that "Cigano" gave the Octagon floor -- and retain his belt and title of "baddest man on the planet."
So what went wrong for Junior?
The exact same thing that went wrong for him 10 months ago in "Sin City," he simply ran into a superior fighter. Sure, "Cigano" can lay claim to being the only man to ever defeat Cain -- knocking him out in the very first round during their initial encounter at UFC on FOX 1 -- but Velasquez proved that, as long as he's breathing and competing in MMA, "JDS" will always be second best in the division.
It's the simple truth.
After losing to Junior in a little over a minute, Cain made the right adjustments in the rematch. In the trilogy bout, Dos Santos failed to do the same as he simply couldn't get a breather as a resilient and aggressive Cain refused to let him catch his breath for a second.
So who should be next for Junior?
Well, it won't be Cain, that's for sure, at least not for another five years, according to the champ. If I'm Joe Silva, I wait for the outcome of the Alistair Overeem vs. Frank Mir scrap at UFC 169. Should "The Demolition Man" lose against Mir, I'd finally match-up the former K-1 champion against "Cigano."
Hell, even if Overeem wins, I'd still make that fight. I mean, it's not like either if them will be vying for the strap anytime soon.
For more on "Velasquez vs. Dos Santos 3" click here, and for complete UFC 166 results and blow-by-blow coverage of all the night's action click here.