Junior dos Santos has only tasted defeat twice in his seventeen fight career, and for months, if not years, people were calling him the best heavyweight in the world. Cain Velasquez ended that talk, at least for now, with his dominating win over Junior last winter. It’s been foretold that Cain and Junior will end up meeting as many times as Randy and Chuck, if not more, and that could be true if Cain repeats his performance against Bigfoot and Junior gets through Mark Hunt. One ‘if’ a little bigger than the other.
Mark Hunt has the longest active win streak in the UFC’s heavyweight division, and has been on a plodding tear through the division since his submission loss in his debut versus Sean McCorkle. Hunt is always ready for a fight, and even though his ground game isn’t quite the greatest (Hunt is still a brown belt in BJJ), he’s a match for anyone on their feet, and this is a huge test for JDS. Considering Hunt has fought Big Nog, Fedor, Barnett, Overeem and many, many more, it may be just another fight for the K-1 World Grand Prix winner. For both men though, it’s the road that leads to the belt, and that means more to JDS than anything and he plans on winning however possible. That includes taking the very submittable Hunt to the ground.
This is what Hunt had to say on MMA Junkie Radio:
“I was trying to fight standing all the time,” said dos Santos. “But it’s MMA and you have to use Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling. So now, it’s more clear to me. I have to use all my skills to win the fights, especially when you’re fighting against someone like Cain Velasquez.”
On Hunt:
“You have to get prepared to fight anywhere,” said dos Santos. “I’m training a lot in my jiu-jitsu skills, and I think I’m getting more confident in that area. If I feel I have to take him down, I will do that, and I will be looking to submit him.”
