TheLyotoLegion

If anything I think this fight will look a lot like Aldo/Mendes.

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hatedcellphones

Yeah, but look who he beat on the way there: Gonzaga, Werdum, Nelson, Carwin, Cain, Mir... Once he beats Cain, there's not a lot of guys left to beat besides Overoid and the other Strikeforce imports.

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RearNaked

Oh absolutely. He's clearly the #1 HW in the world right now and no one else comes close. But he isn't Anderson or GSP. He isn't some unbeatable monster.

Yet.

ClydebankBlitz

Silva and Sonnen were standing a decent amount in that fight and Sonnen landed a few. The striking difference between Sonnen and Silva is ridiculously further apart from JDS and Cain, so I mean for you to act like it's impossible is w/e to me. I just said I could see it happen and have a feeling it will...unless JDS is your sacred deity I'm pretty sure that shouldnt have got you as defencive.

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FFL
A. Overeem : G. Nelson : R. Khabilov : T. Means : C. Mills

hatedcellphones

Yet. Exactly.
I really like Cain AND Junior, but I want Junior to win so he can become a dominant champ of the division. With a skill set and record like his, I think it's very possible for him to become an Anderson Silva type fighter at Heavyweight.
Granted, I don't think that he's as good a fighter as Silva pound for pound, but he'd be a similar champion: dominant striking with very little need for a ground game, but he does have one should he ever need it. That second part we haven't seen from Junior, but if anyone's going to get it out of him it's Cain. That's part of why I'm so excited for this fight. I want to see if Junior can show himself to be a more complete fighter.

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hadoq

f*ck this fight, I want to see overeem get a shot at JDS!

Cain doesn't really strike me (!) as a smart fighter. But it's fairly clear that JDS really stepped into the shoes of a champion lately (on many levels).

I'm pretty sure this fight will be a little more competitive than the first time around, but I'm not sold on Cain for this one. Had more faith in him in the first one.

GrappleRetarded

The only times we have actually seen JDS on the ground for any extended period of time, he was easily swept and put in a choke position by Shane Lactic Acidosis Carwin, and the other time he was easily submitted:



There is also a training video of JDS rolling on the matt with Lyoto Machida floating about the internet. He really just doesn't look fluid or adept in BJJ at all.

I think that the rematch will go differently because in the history of this sport, rematches almost always end up having vastly differently results than the original fights. I.e. BJ Penn/Hughes 1, BJ Penn/Hughes 2, Randy Couture/Liddell 1, compared to the two other rematches, Andrei Arlovski/Sylvia 1, compared to the other matches..... Just a few off the top of my head in high profile championship bouts where rematches have occurred after the original fights being so decisive and one sided.

The other reason I think it will go differently is because I believe Cain Velasquez is a top three MMA wrestler (much, much better than Chad Mendes in every aspect of wrestling LL) and I believe if he comes into the fight with a heavy grappling based game plan, he will comfortably take Junior down and have his way with him on the ground.I think Cains wrestling is just THAT good.

People were claiming that Machida had godlike take down defense, then when he fought Jon Jones, a monster wrestler that actually tested him in that department, people thought differently after the fight was over.

Fact of the matter is, JDS still hasn't been tested against a monster wrestler with a game plan for take downs, just like Machida hadn't before he fought Jones. Carwin is a very strong guy, but his MMA wrestling has never been impressive. Roy Nelson desperately shooting for take downs certainly doesn't count as a legitimate test. In comes Cain Velasquez, a man who easily dumped Brock Lesnar onto the mat with a single leg take down. I personally just think his wrestling is on another level and believe he's going to showcase that aspect of his game in all of it's glory come Satruday.

Only time will tell.

Sports_Nerd

Cain was out for a year with an injury, which forced Junior to wait for his title shot. He chose to spend that time kicking ass instead of sitting on his own.

Cain's injury is the only reason Junior has 1 defense, and not 3 or 4.

RearNaked

OK, but he could have lost one of those fights too...

hellholming

meh.... JDS by KO again. Cain doesn't get to keep him down long enough to do any damage if he ever gets him down. And it's not like Cain can stand with JDS.

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