According to a recent article that can be found here, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu legend and former UFC interim heavyweight title holder Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-5-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) is set to face the undefeated heavyweight and cage-fighting steamroller known as Cain Velasquez (7-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) on Jan. 2 at UFC 108.
The Southern California native Velasquez is a Mexican-American heavyweight fighting machine—a solid 6'1", 240-pound self-proclaimed chain wrestler who fights out of San Jose at the American Kickboxing Academy.
He now stands undefeated through seven fights—five by knockout. Velasquez was coming off the biggest win of his career—against Cheick Kongo at UFC 99—when he continued his winning ways in front of his hometown crowd at the Staples Center in LA last month at UFC 104.
With that superbly fought and truly dominating victory performance over a very game Ben Rothwell, this talented young UFC heavyweight will now undoubtedly face the toughest test of his MMA career against "Minotauro" Nogueira.
Nogueira is a grappler who is as tough as they come and also a legendary Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu submissions expert.
"Big Nog," as he is known in MMA circles, made his name in the now defunct organization known as Pride Fighting Championships and is coming off a huge win recently at UFC 102 over the ageless UFC pioneer Randy "The Natural" Couture.
This has the look of a great technical battle between two of the best heavyweights in the game.
If Velasquez can keep the fight standing, it will allow him his best chance of winning due to Nogueira's obvious lack of boxing skills and punching power. In addition, the Brazilian Minotauro has also demonstrated somewhat of a fragile chin in past and recent fights against Tim Sylvia and Frank Mir.
However, if the fight does happen to go to the mat, I would most definitely give the advantage to Nogueira, who is a tricky BJJ specialist and also possibly the best heavyweight submission fighter in the game next to Mir.
In this writer's opinion, it should ultimately be a classic duel between a great wrestler and a legendary submissions expert, yet I feel that the sheer physical strength and punching power of Cain will be the overlooked factor here.
I'm predicting another impressive victory for the young Mexican Velasquez, who will become seemingly unstoppable and continue to mow down a path of destruction toward his future UFC heavyweight championship title shot sometime next year.
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