Our friends over at Intravid.com break down Saturday’s main event between Cain Velasquez vs Bigfoot Silva.

And here we are, yet again approaching another great night of fights. On a card stacked from top to bottom all eyes will be on the main event as heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez looks to defend his newly reacquired belt against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. So how do these two fighters stack up?

Cain Velasquez

Though heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez has nothing to prove to the fighting community he will certainly look to make a statement Saturday night. Cain, the former champ, lost his belt to Junior Dos Santos after a right hand from Dos Santos left Cain without consciousness and without his belt.  Cain later went on to win the belt back in a 5 round lopsided battle with Dos Santos at UFC 155 and will look to silence all critics with a dominating title defense this weekend.

Cain Velasquez and Big Foot have already done battle once, a fight that ended in the first round due to some viscous ground and pound from the former two-time All-American wrestler at Arizona State University. The adjustments made by the champion in his second bout with Silva should be minimal as he will need to use his wrestling to get on top and control the powerful Silva. Though Big Foot has incredibly high level Jiu-Jitsu Cain has proven that in top position he is almost impossible to deal with and a submission by Silva off of his back would be very surprising especially in the later rounds when sweat becomes a factor. Though one could argue that although Big Foot has a power advantage in the striking department Cain is still a better all-around striker, I would be blown away to see Cain go more than a minute without shooting for a take-down. Just as Matt Serra seemed to turn GSP into the dominant wrestler and strategist that he has become, I believe Dos Santos has done the same to Cain. Look for Cain to fight where he is safe, on top, a place where I believe no man can overcome him.

Antonio “Big Foot” Silva

After the loss to Cain at UFC 146, Big Foot has picked up some great momentum taking out top heavyweights Travis Browne and Allistair Overreem. Though on paper these wins are incredibly impressive, a breakdown of those fights does not justify how competitive the media is making the fight this weekend out to be. Travis Browne suffered a hamstring injury in the first round of the fight that left him unable to use the athletic advantage he would have likely employed against Silva. On the other hand, Big Foot overcame Overreem in a fight where Allistair had the testosterone levels of my 11 year old sister because prior steroid use took away his opportunity for a TRT exemption. After a bad loss to Cain and a loss to Daniel Cormier prior to that it is clear that although Silva has the power to knock anybody in the division out, he clearly struggles with wrestlers.  Other than Cormier, Cain is the best in the division so look to see Cain employ a heavy wrestling attack Saturday night. Add to his wrestling, the speed and conditioning advantage Cain will possess and Bigfoot is likely in for a long night eating punches and elbows with Cain inside of his guard.

Though Cain is the heavy favorite, Big Foot showed he thrives in the underdog position with his win over the very hyped up Allistair Overeem. Silva will most certainly be worried about the takedown and at 6’4” Silva will need to establish his Jab early in the fight and control the distance against the arguably undersized heavyweight Velasquez. With the speed and conditioning of Cain, Silva will need to make sure to pace himself because if conditioning begins to affect the snap in his punches, he will have lost seemingly his only advantage; Power.

Though I can speculate all I want about the fight, the fact of the matter is that anything can happen in the octagon and only after Saturday night will we know who the baddest man in the world truly is.

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