UFC 108 Results, Fallout: Junior Dos Santos, UFC's Top Heavyweight Prospect?

Junior Dos Santos's life has changed a lot since Oct. 23, 2008.

At that time, Dos Santos was just about to fight Fabricio Werdum, and was heading into the fight as a +500 underdog.

Actually, Dos Santos was about a +800 underdog, until some people watched him hitting the mitts in one of Dana White's video blogs, and were extremely impressed.

Shortly after the release of that UFC video blog, a number of wagers were placed on Dos Santos that dropped him all the way down to +500.

Those lucky enough to have acted upon that blog early enough were financially rewarded when Dos Santos knocked out Werdum in the first round.

Apparently White's video blogs can be useful for more than just promotion. (Take that, Steve Cofield and Maggie Hendricks! )

The win over Werdum was huge, since Werdum was seen as a title contender at the time. Yet even that win would only be the beginning.

After having knocked out Stevan Struve, Mirko Cro Cop, and Gilbert Yvel, Dos Santos has skyrocketed into contender status within the heavyweight division.

If there are a few reservations remaining about Dos Santos, they may have something to do with his competition.  Many have pounced on the UFC for giving a hard sell for Gilbert Yvel.  I disagree.

The reason for the fight wasn't really about relevance, in my mind. The purpose of the fight was to create a little bit of fireworks by pitting two gigantic strikers against each other.

That being said, the way that Dos Santos won really changes the narrative into one about Dos Santos's rise to stardom.

Dos Santos was winning from start to finish against a guy who may not be the most well-rounded of fighters, but who is always dangerous while the fight remains on the feet. And on the feet was where Dos Santos was successful.

I'm certainly not alone with being impressed with Dos Santos, as other writers such as Josh Gross have gone as far as saying that "With due respect to undefeated Cain Velasquez, the best heavyweight prospect in mixed martial arts is 25-year-old Brazilian slugger Junior dos Santos."

Here, I feel that I must need to disagree. Dos Santos has been very impressive thus far, but there are still a number of massive challenges waiting ahead of him.

In front of Dos Santos stand the UFC wrestling powerhouse trio of Velasquez, Carwin, and Lesnar, assuming Lesnar can recover from illness.

Dos Santos has yet to face a dominating wrestler, so we still don't really know how well his ground game and takedown defense are going to hold up under this new challenge.

Werdum and Struve have some submission skills, in Werdum's case, great submission skills, but neither Werdum nor Struve are particularly great at bringing the fight to the ground.

Until we see what Dos Santos can do against an elite wrestler, it is difficult for me to call him the brightest prospect in the division.

Of course, Dos Santos is trained by a great BJJ instructor in Minotauro Nogueira, and perhaps when he faces a wrestler like Velasquez, or Carwin, he'll prove himself up to the task of either keeping the fight on the feet, or defending himself on his back, but he hasn't done so yet.

In my opinion, at this time, Cain Velasquez has done more to show that he can succeed against any opponent, be it striker, wrestler, or BJJ artist.

That being said, Dos Santos and Velasquez are without a doubt the two best prospects in the heavyweight division today.

By Darren Wong

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Also, announcing the winner(s) of my UFC 108 prediction challenge .

I accidentally left the Miller/Lauzon pick off the list, so some people submitted a pick for that fight, others didn't, so the results are pretty messy, and those who didn't make a Lauzon/Miller pick lost an opportunity. My fault.

Winner Without Miller/Lauzon Points: B Gunn and Mitch Ciccarelli

Winner With Miller Lauzon: Mike D - 17 Points (14 without his Miller 1st round Sub Pick)

I finished with a miserable 11 points, tying for second to last.

The Hazelett/Daley pick was probably the biggest factor in the contest, with many picking the Daley first-round KO.