UFC 121 Fight Card: What Brock Lesnar Must Do to Beat Cain Velasquez

This is it—this is what everyone wants to talk about when they talk about UFC 121 this Saturday in Anaheim.

They talk about one of the Ultimate Fighting Championship's Big Five—the man who holds the gold in the largest UFC division, and the man who will be defending the belt for the third time in his career since dethroning Randy "The Natural" Couture at UFC 91.

They talk about "The Baddest Man on The Planet," Brock Lesnar, the UFC Heavyweight Champion, the man who will be defending his crown against the man Dana White calls "The Terminator," Cain Velasquez.

Now, for those who may not know or recall from a few months ago, when Lesnar beat Shane Carwin and the hype for this fight began, the general consensus is that the size, strength and wrestling of Lesnar will be too much to handle for Velasquez.

It's understood that Velasquez is without question one of the more well-rounded fighters to have challenged Lesnar for the title.

The man has some of the most insane cardio of any Heavyweight in MMA, he's got solid punching power, and like Lesnar, he has the takedown ability of an explosive wrestler.

The key thing with Velasquez, though, is that his takedowns are something that you wouldn't ever expect out of a guy his size.

Then again, Lesnar is pretty agile for a guy with his size and frame.

Lesnar isn't the best striker in the world either, so this makes his road to an unprecedented third successful title defense in a row very interesting.

What's the smartest way to work around a well-rounded fighter who can move like a Lightweight, look like a Middleweight and hit like a Heavyweight?

Simple, in two respects, is the answer.

One answer is learning a thing or two about deadly strikes from Pat Barry, who came to the Team Death Clutch camp to help the champ prep for his fight and can tell you firsthand that no Heavyweight should be even able to move the way Lesnar does—a major testament to the freakish agility the champ has.

The other answer is the one I'd recommend, and that is to use his own strikes to set Cain up for takedowns.

If he wants to be the first man to put a blemish on Junior Dos Santos' UFC run, he has to get by Cain Velasquez, but if he gets into a striking war with Cain, yet his striking is the same as it's been—virtually absent until after a takedown—he won't get that chance to fight Junior.

Cain has to be careful with his striking too, because we don't know that Brock's striking is terrible, but Brock has to believe his wrestling to be superior to Cain's and use that to his edge. The way to use that to his edge is to set up for it by hurting Cain in Cain's superior area.

The size and strength of the champ are two givens in this fight, and if Cain's back is on the ground, Brock can use that to his edge as well, just as he was able to do against Shane Carwin.

The difference between Carwin and Velasquez is the frame of both men, and I mention that because I'll admit that Cain could suffer the exact same fate as Carwin did, except Lesnar might sink in that "Minnesota Death Clutch" that we all call an Arm Triangle with either slightly more ease or slightly less ease on the slimmer Cain than he did to the more muscular Carwin.

It depends on if Cain has prepared himself for a Lesnar submission or not, and that could keep Cain guessing now that we know that a takedown and those two fists from hell aren't the only things Lesnar can use to get a win.

Cain's going to have to pull out a massive shocker to do what Carwin couldn't, but he'll have to pull out a pretty intelligent game plan to even get a convincing decision on Lesnar.

If he doesn't, then we'll all be waiting for the news to break for the date of Dos Santos vs. Lesnar.

Of course, if you don't feel Lesnar will retain, there's always the Pro-Cain opinion.