Junior Dos Santos
Fortunately for Junior Dos Santos, it’s not a beauty contest in there. You don’t win decisions in MMA simply by bleeding less, by keeping swelling to a minimum, or even by leaving the cage looking remotely similar to the way you came in.
This is all good news for Dos Santos(17-3 MMA, 11-2 UFC), who got so lumped up in his unanimous-decision victory over Stipe Miocic (12-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC on FOX 13 main event that, when he goes to return home, he might have some trouble convincing the fine people at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport that the dude in his passport photo is really him.
That doesn’t mean he didn’t deserve to win, of course. It also doesn’t mean he should make a habit of winning this way, assuming he has any choice in the matter (watch the Dos Santos vs. Miocic video highlights).
If the goal is riveting, memorable fights, then by all means, the method Dos Santos employed against Miocic is bound to produce. You know, at least for as long as he can keep it up.
Heavyweight fights don’t get a lot better than this. For five rounds the two men traded one skull-thumper after another, and then waded in for more as if each was trying to prove how utterly unbothered he was by having his face gradually redesigned. Miocic’s poker face held up a little better in that regard. Dos Santos’ was too busy bleeding.
But it’s rare to have a great fight that isn’t also a close fight. For Miocic, the closeness of it all led to disappointment. As the judges scores were read – a reasonable 48-47, followed by two slightly more baffling 49-46 tallies – in Dos Santos’ favor, Miocic turned in disgust.
Can you blame him? He’d just given the former UFC heavyweight champ all he could handle, splitting his head open like an overripe pumpkin, and two of the three judges responded by telling him that he’d lost all but one round. Even after your own face has been numbed by a big Brazilian’s fists, that’s bound to sting.
If Dos Santos ever questioned whether he truly deserved the decision, he didn’t show it. With his T-shirt smeared in blood, he celebrated in his coaches’ arms and then showed up to the press conference looking like a Hollywood actor trying (and failing) to hide the fact that he’d just undergone every plastic surgery procedure known to man. But when he stops to think about what he endured to get this win, and what he’s likely to get for it in return, that’s when Dos Santos might question the risk vs. the reward.
See, “Cigano” is in a tricky spot in the heavyweight class these days. He came out on the wrong end of a trilogy with UFC champion Cain Velasquez, and he took away his share of scar tissue and brain bruises from the latter two of those fights. By doing the same thing in a winning effort against Miocic, he put to rest any chance that we’ll ever doubt his toughness, but it’s hard to say he got significantly closer to the UFC title.
Velasquez-Dos Santos 4? It just doesn’t have that ring of absolute necessity. Not while Fabricio Werdum is still upright, or while Velasquez’s injuries force him to fight so infrequently.
So where does that leave Dos Santos? He’s arguably the second-best heavyweight out there – good enough that a strong showing against him even in defeat is enough to lift Miocic’s stock, according to UFC President Dana White – and his only losses in the UFC have come against the very best in the world.
At the same time, his winning streak is currently hovering at one. He’s not getting any harder to hit, nor is he looking any more comfortable at dealing with a speedy fighter intent on a high-pressure, fast-paced attack. There isn’t much reason to think he’d even the score against Velasquez if given a chance, and there isn’t yet a groundswell of popular support urging the UFC to let him try.
That leaves him either waiting for Velasquez to lose the belt, or else hoping he can smash enough would-be contenders to give the UFC no other choice. Either way, that can be a tough game to play. Especially if it’s going to hurt that much every time you try.
For complete coverage of UFC on FOX 13, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
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Watch Dana White, Junior Dos Santos and Stipe Miocic discuss the UFC on FOX 13 main-event scorecards:
