UFC 146: May 26, 2012 Las Vegas, Nevada Cain Velasquez (-400) Profile: Velasquez (9-1) is coming off his first career loss to Junior dos Santos in his first title defense as UFC heavyweight champion at the first UFC on FOX event last November 12. The 29-year-old former All-American college wrestler at Arizona State was stunned by dos Santos with a knockout at 1:04 of the first round after previously looking nearly unbeatable in his first nine MMA fights. Nine of Velasquez’ 10 bouts have ended by KO/TKO, with the other resulting in a unanimous decision victory against Cheick Kongo at UFC 99. Velasquez earned the heavyweight title with a first-round TKO of Brock Lesnar at UFC 121 before losing the belt to dos Santos. Antonio Silva (+300) Profile: “Bigfoot” Silva (16-3) will be making his UFC debut after losing to eventual Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix champion Daniel Cormier by first-round knockout in the tournament semifinals last September 10. The 32-year-old Brazilian previously competed at super heavyweight early on in his career and won titles with Cage Rage and the Cage Warriors Fighting Championship in England. Silva handed MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko one of three consecutive losses in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix quarterfinals by TKO and won the EliteXC heavyweight title against former UFC fighter Justin Eilers back in 2007 before testing positive for steroids. Odds Analysis: MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas installed former UFC heavyweight champion Velasquez as a strong -400 favorite (bet $400 to win $100) against Silva, the +300 underdog (bet $100 to win $300) according to the UFC 146 odds. Silva is one of a few former Strikeforce fighters who are in the process of making the transition to the UFC, and he will get a much bigger test here than he expected since he was originally scheduled to face Roy Nelson. Velasquez was going to meet Frank Mir, who got called up for a championship bout with Junior dos Santos after another former Strikeforce fighter Alistair Overeem failed a drug test. There are a couple key questions many MMA bettors want to see answered in this fight. First, is Silva a real contender for the UFC heavyweight title or just a pretender who has padded most of his record against inferior competition? Second, how seriously will the shocking loss by Velasquez to dos Santos affect him moving forward? Velasquez was a slight favorite against dos Santos and needs to rebound here in order to stake his claim as the No. 1 contender and earn a rematch.
