On this week’s UFC TONIGHT, hosts Kenny Florian and Chael Sonnen preview the upcoming UFC 166: VELASQUEZ VS. DOS SANTOS heavyweight championship fight and interview Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos.
UFC TONIGHT host Chael Sonnen on the second fight between Velasquez and Dos Santos: “Cain out-struck Dos Santos. Cain is very serious with cardio like that. We call him Cardio Cain.”
UFC TONIGHT host Kenny Florian on what Junior Dos Santos needs to win: “Junior can still get the knockout, and with some serious adjustments with his wrestling and his footwork, he could get the win here.”
Florian on how Daniel Cormier can beat Roy Nelson: “You will land shots on Roy and that’s what Nelson wants. Nelson wants you to trade shots with him. Cormier needs to get in and out, and not trade punches with him. Cormier is still going to try to wrestle him and that may play a factor now that he’s lighter – trying to wrestle the heavyweight Nelson could take a toll.”
UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez on what he’ll do differently this time against Junior Dos Santos: “I know what I want to do in the sport and I know how to do it. I just know that when it comes to fight night, I have to go out there and put on a show and perform well and win.”
Velasquez on what he’s prepared for in the third fight? “I’m expecting different stuff from him. Our game plan is the same, I have to do the same stuff I did in the last fight. I have to keep fighting forward and looking for takedowns. I’ve improved from the last fight. I looked at the last fight and I’ve worked on some things.”
Velasquez on if it bothered him that Dos Santos said he hit like a girl: “It doesn’t. With a loss people try to take something positive from it. That was all he could do. I didn’t finish the fight. But it doesn’t get under my skin.”
Velasquez on if he’ll look for a submission now that he has a black belt in jiu-jitsu: “I go into every fight thinking it’ll be a hard five rounds back and forth, never thinking knockout or submission. If it comes, then I’ll take it.”
Dos Santos on what will be different the third time. “I think we showed a little of ourselves in each fight. In the first fight, I knocked him out, which is something I did a lot before. The second fight showed how he fights. Now we’ve learned more about each other and it’ll be great for the fans.”
Dos Santos on if the loss to Velasquez affected him: “It affected me a lot. It was not good. Nobody likes to lose. I learned a lot. I’m smarter now and I have a lot more experience and I’m going to use that.”
Dos Santos on if he’ll use new tricks like the spinning wheel kick in this fight:“Yeah, expect something different this time. I never felt comfortable enough to use those against wrestlers. You have to use all our weapons to win a fight and I’m going to do that.”
UFC TONIGHT Insider Ariel Helwani on good and bad news for Daniel Cormier:“Good news. Daniel Cormier is in amazing shape right now. He expects to weight 225 at the weigh-ins, a weight that he used to be at when he was wrestling. But the bad news, Roy Nelson will have the beard for the fight. Cormier made a complaint with the Texas commission about beard, but they said they don’t regulate things like that, so Roy is allowed to fight with it.”
Helwani on Hector Lombard moving down to 170 for this fight: “He told me that his welterweight cut was miserable. He’s been doing lots of dieting and lots of running. But he’s not planning on staying at welterweight and would like to still fight at middleweight as well. He wants to fight again December 6 in Brisbane, Australia because his son lives there.”
Helwani on remarks about Georges St-Pierre’s pending retirement: “I spoke to Firas Zahabi and he said the remarks were taken out of context. A lot of people thought he might retire after the fight with Johny Hendricks. But that’s not what he said. He said that if GSP loses his drive through a training camp, then he’ll retire. But he says it’s been a great camp, best in two years. He’s not thinking about retirement and has lots of fights left.”