Cain Velasquez vs. Dos Santos: Is JDS a Top Pound-for-Pound Fighter

The MMA world welcomed its new heavyweight king on Saturday night at UFC on FOX.

It took Junior Dos Santos only 64 seconds to go from contender to champion as he stopped former undefeated UFC champion Cain Velasquez in the first round of their anticipated title bout.

With such a dominant win over a top-10 pound-for-pound opponent, the world will soon be clamoring about Dos Santos' ranking on the highly-debated list, which includes the best fighters in the world.

A win over Velasquez is more than enough to thrust Dos Santos into the pound-for-pound rankings, but the top remains a bit crowded with proven world champions in Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, Jose Aldo, Frankie Edgar, Dominick Cruz and Jon Jones.

As upper-echelon heavyweights continue to jump over from Strikeforce and meld into the already stacked UFC division, Dos Santos has a great opportunity to set himself apart as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

Some will undoubtedly jump the gun and expedite the Brazilian's progress up the pound-for-pound ranks, but as a newly crowned champion, he should be given the opportunity to actually defend his title first.

Bear in mind, there is more to go on for Dos Santos than just a win over Velasquez.

He also boasts impressive victories over Fabricio Werdum, Shane Carwin, Roy Nelson and MMA legend Mirko "Cro Cop."

As champion, his next test comes from the winner of the epic UFC 141 showdown between former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and former Strikeforce, Dream and K-1 World Grand Prix champion Alistair Overeem.

If Dos Santos manages to pass that test, the UFC has a plethora of possibilities for potential opponents including Velasquez, Werdum, Josh Barnett, Daniel Cormier, Frank Mir or possibly even Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

A pound-for-pound debate is most likely the last thing on Dos Santos' mind right now. He just won the UFC title in front of millions of viewers on primetime television.

Let's start with that.