How Cain Velesquez Did the Impossible

When Brock Lesnar and his training coaches decided to move forward with accepting a fight with Cain Velasquez; only months after just barely beating Shane Carwin, it seemed as though no one thought that to be an issue. Immediately, people within the MMA community and fans alike, on auto-pilot, decided that Lesnar once again had it in the bag. Especially since Carwin actually was Lesnar's size and Velasquez is easily 35 pounds lighter than Brock, on a good day. With a new beard and an ever-evolving MMA arsenal, Brock truly did, in my mind have this fight in the bag, based on how he had defeated his previous opponents.

That is until the fight actually started. Even though Brock started well, landing strikes and surprising everyone with a few flying knees and a few of the regular persuasion, he never landed anything of real merit. Here's the thing, too, the entire time the Heavyweight Champ was initiating his defensive campaign, Cain Velasquez was faster, he was cautious in his proximity to the lunch pail sized hands of Lesnar, and he was landing his strikes with more accuracy, winning each striking exchange.

Withing 90 seconds, Lesnar went for his first take down, in which he was successful, but only for a few moments. Cain instantly became the first opponent of Brock's who didn't end up laying on his back, eating elbows and hammer fists. Instead, he forced Brock to stand and throw desperate punches that Cain capitalized on, tagging the Champ a few times for good measure. Mere moments later, Lesnar got another take down that Velasquez was able to recover from, once again forcing Brock to stand and trade, losing each time. This proved to be a key element in Lesnar's undoing.

Here's where I knew the fight would end up as an upset: Velasquez takes LESNAR down. The smaller man took down the All-American Pure-Bread Wrestler. From there, the Champion rolled onto his knees. Strikes were rained down on Brock's head and face that obviously shook him, because the second he got up he did what looked like a running, tumbling dance across the entire Octagon and ended up propping himself up against the cage, just to keep balance.

After that, the challenger smelled blood and went for the kill. He landed a huge knee that put Brock down again and landed more devastating shots from the top position on the ground. To his credit, Brock fought his way back to his feet, once again, however brief it may have been. His faced bathed in his own blood, battered, and disoriented, Lesnar again allowed Cain Velasquez to take him down, curl him up and beat him in the body and face until the referee had to do what no one thought would happen, he called the fight, TKO victory for Cain Velasquez.

Looking back at the fight, I can't think of a single thing that Velasquez did wrong in his approach to finally cracking the code of how to beat Brock Lesnar, outright. He moved around Lesnar quicker than a Shane Carwin or even a Frank Mir could. He was able to get back on his feet when Lesnar got his take downs, making his take down defense look like an unfair glitch in the UFC video game. On top of all of that, his strikes all landed with purpose and with bad intentions. They were accurate and they were punishing. Lesnar simply could not absorb the amount of damage he had to endure. Velasquez has cracked the code the same way Fedor cracked the code on how to beat Mirko Cro Cop. (Or for real MMA nerds, how Marco Ruas finally defeated The Polar Bear Paul Varlens)

Instead of Cro Cop, where if you move forward on him and force him to initiate in close quarters, you beat Lesnar with a mix of cardio, speed, power, and quick take-down recovery time. To paraphrase what Joe Rogan once said on his podcast, there are two schools of thought on what makes a dominant heavyweight: either a huge, 265-275 pound wrestler who can pound out victories that in real life walk around at closer to 300 plus pounds. Or, fighters who are closer to 235-245 at weigh ins, closer to 255-265 on fight night, who are faster and more agile. Saturday night proved that the latter can beat the former.

It will be interesting to see how the division sorts itself out, from here on out. With Junior Dos Santos set to fight Velasquez, my guess, on Super Bowl Saturday this coming February, the logical thing do with Brock would be to have him sign a re-match with Shane Carwin. Whether or not that would determine the number one contender spot for the title would be up to the UFC, but I can't think of too many other UFC heavyweights who are going to get a shot at the Gold anytime soon. Personally, I think Brock should go back and face at the very least, three opponents before getting a shot at the title again. I'd love to see him fight Todd Duffee or Cheik Kongo.

Either way, whether the UFC gives him an instant title re-match or if they make him climb his way back up, one thing is for sure: Gods can bleed and they can also be beaten. You just need the right game plan.