Well Velasquez is a better technical fighter than Carwin and he will have better conditioning, but Brock Lesnar will have the strength and size advantage.
Brock should win but i wouldn't rule out a Velasquez's tko through cumulative damage.

Velasquez should be fighting Dos Santos for title contention. I don't understand why he has more hype on him than Santos. Dos Santos is a much much more technically impressive fighter who has had a much more impressive run in the UFC. I'm guessing UFC is just trying to milk the Mexican demographic on this one. Oh well.

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Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

perhaps but Velasquez is the kind of guy who just pulls it off. No one expected him to ko Nog. I won't be surprised if he beats Santos.

Guys that "just pull it off" usually run into a brick wall sooner or later. No one expected Velasquez to KO Nog, agreed, but in retrospect Nog is very slow on his feet these days and he is no longer top level competition. Santos would've done the same thing to Nog easy enough.

Neither one of the two has really fought superior competition just yet, IMO. Velasquez has been given Kongo and aging Nog. Santos got aging Cro-Cop and Gonzaga. Velasquez went three rounds with Kongo and KO'ed Nog in the first. Santos went three rounds with Cro-Cop (but earning a TKO), and KO'ed Gonzaga in the first. Given their competition, I feel Santos has performed much more impressively, all other things being (perhaps) equal...

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Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

Nog maybe fading but he's very hard to knock out. Kongo may not be top tier but it was a good win For Velasquez nonetheless. I don't see Santos winning streak as being more impressive as Gonzanga has been knocked out far more often than Nog has and Cro-cop is on the wane.
Guys that defeats the odds sometimes are found out, but other times it a sign of greater things to come. I guess we'll find out in a few months which is the case with Velasquez.

Nog's jaw has suffered from the same syndrome as Chuck Liddell's jaw. It was bound to happen, and it finally happened. You can KO either one by sneezing. Cro-Cop is tougher than Kongo, IMO (his loss to Kongo non-withstanding, styles make fights). To me, Cain has had a very lucky run so far. Whereas Santos showed unbelievable amount of talent.

_________________
Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

nah i don't think Nog is punch drunk like Liddel's. Velasquez power is underrated imo. Cro-Cop would have hammered Kongo in his prime. The fact that loss was 2 years before he lost Santos tells us little about Santos as a fighter. Anyway we'll know soon enough just how good either man is.

Well like I said, regardless which side of the argument you are on, there are question marks about both fighters. So I simply do not see the credibility of Velasquez' run for the title without facing Santos first.

_________________
Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

Well Velasquez and Carwin were originally scheduled to meet to decide who would be the number one contender. So this is just the way it panned out.
If Velasquez manages to beat Lesnar i think that would prove he deserved his shot ahead of Santos. Likewise if Santos were to beat Lesnar and Velasquez failed you'd be right. So we'll just have to wait and see how it pans out.

Also you can see what sort of fighter Santos is, even if he hasn't faced very steep competition. He has very good boxing, possibly the best head movement and lateral movement in the HW division (UFC only). Very impressive TDD, and very obvious power.

Velasquez is an exceptional wrestler, a vastly improved kick-boxer, but flat footed as a boxer, he hits hard but needs a slower target to execute successfully. No one has challenged his TDD yet, so that's a question mark as well...

We can probably go on forever disputing this though...

_________________
Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

well that's true but as the saying goes styles makes fights. When one man is seen to have the technical advantage in one area it doesn't automatically translate to him winning a fight because of said advantage over his opponent. let's see can we keep this going till Velasquez fights Lesnar

Well frankly I'm just not that invested
I favor Santos over Velasquez and I favor Roy Nelson over all of them, just 'cuz he does it on raw talent and makes better looking fighters look bad. But I'm more concerned with the BW/FW/LW/WW/LHW divisions than MW or HW.

WAR Cruz/Bowles/Grispi/Penn/Sotiropolous/Fitch/Koscheck/Shogun/Machida

_________________
Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

if neither of them can beat Nelson i'd be disappointed.Velasquez should beat Santos due to his superior ground game in my opinion.

If he can manage to get Santos on the ground before getting KTFO, and then he has to worry about a black belt jits player on the bottom, good luck Cain

_________________
Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

He'll just dominate him with strikes from the top and keep him down with his wrestling skills and at the same time ensuring he doesn't get caught in a submission hold. Santos may get lucky who knows

You keep taking for granted that Velasquez will be successful at taking JDS down. And your whole argument rests on that. That is far from certain, but who knows, maybe Cain will get lucky

_________________
Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

haha.

if they do face off one of us is going to have huge bragging rights assuming it doesn't end in a draw or a controversial decision

_________________
Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

As far as Strikeforce, it appears Fedor will be rematching Werdum next. He'll probably turn Werdum into a hamburger and retire, that's just my guess.

This saturday, Dream 15 on HDNet (Aoki, Moussasi, etc). BE THERE!

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Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

I don't see Fedor retiring any time soon.

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I hope he does retire should he avenge the loss. I really don't want to see him become like Randy Couture. Ok maybe he could have a couple of more years left but i'd prerfer a fighter to get out on top and have fans left to wonder about what might have been. As we've seen in boxing so many times there's always someone else to face and before you know it a great fighter is past his prime and losing to guys he'd have easily beaten in his prime.

comcast doesnt have hdnet im so pissed! i should go to my bros to watch it.

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I think 35-36 is a good retirement age for a fighter whose cage age is going on 10 years as in Fedor's case. I think he has another good 1-2 years or so and then he'll rapidly decline.

Couture didn't start fighting until he was 35 I believe, so it's a different story with him, but he is also reaching a point of no return now. His physical age is finally contributing heavily to his cage age. I do not believe Fedor is at Randy's level of devolution quite yet though. This loss, I think had more to do with the fact that he fought nothing but strikers lately and possibly neglected his grappling, than his age...

_________________
Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

Damn August is stacked!
3 UFC events. 1 WEC event. 1 Strikeforce event.

_________________
Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

I'm officially Chael Sonnen's #1 fan now

_________________
Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

That was a fucking incredible fight! I thought it was going to go to decision and that Sonnen would have it. That submission came out of nowhere! At least Silva defended his title this time, instead of dancing around like a fairy. Then again, Sonnen didn't really give him much of a chance to do that, did he?

There were a lot of good fights tonight. That one with the Skyscraper and the new guy, Morecraft, was amazing. He pounded the shit out of Struve and then hit the mat limp. Man, Struve pounded away at his face for like 10 seconds before the ref stopped it!

Dos Santos will have to fight a lot better than that if he hopes to go for a belt. I don't know about Vasquez, but Lesnar would destroy him like that.

That sleeper was a crazy win, too. Put the guy right to sleep. He was out cold. That was awesome!

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What were those muppets booing for at then end. They got to see a fight of the year. Silva did what all great champions do when they are under severe pressure.

Fold like a bitch for 4 rounds?

No, seriously, I think his late victory had more to do with Sonnen tiring out and posturing up to get his bearings than Silva's "champion" ability to win at that point. It was Sonnen's fight to lose and he came up short. Chael made Silva his bitch for 4.5 rounds and I will never forget that

_________________
Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

ack..double post

_________________
Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun. - Ash.

When a whore is too ugly to be a stripper and too lazy to be a prostitute she becomes a dominatrix. - Dick Masterson.

This is my Signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Signature, without me, is useless. Without my Signature, I am useless

i feel you may be overlooking Silva's incredible stamina! he was getting hammered for four rounds and still had the strength and nous to pull it out of the fire. He's a great champion!!
I felt bad for Sonnen given his performance, and the fact he wanted to win to honour his deceased father, but unfortunately, unlike the hollywood movies, sentiment isn't enough to win.