Just re-watching UFC 104, and just seen Velasquez vs Rothwell for the 2nd time, and I have to say, that was one seriously impressive performance from Velasquez. Sure the stoppage was poor, but man, Velasquez dominated Rothwell. Rothwell's no can either, he has some solid wins in his career, sure he's not probably not a Top 10, but you cannot argue with the dominance of that performance. To control a guy as big as Rothwell on the ground like Cain did, and to continually pummel him in the face like he did was so, so impressive.
Maybe the hype train is abit much and JDS is more deserving of a big match-up, but Velasquez is going to give Nogueira some seriously problems in this match-up. I'm not sure if he'll win or not, but I'm seriously excited for the fight. I don't see how you can't like what you see from Cain Velasquez. He's big, he's powerful, has good wrestling, good ground control, incredible conditioning and a work ethic not matched by many. Whether that'll contribute to beating Nogueira I don't know, but he's got a seriously good chance, and it wouldn't surprise me to see Cain pull out a big victory. Lesnar proved against Mir that with size, ground control and good wrestling you can neutralize top class Jiu Jitsu, the big test for Velasquez will be whether he can do the same thing. I am pumped for this fight and really looking forward to the card.