Fall of the Champion: Junior dos Santos’ Unfortunate Decline

He punches with ferocity and brims with the confidence of a man who believes he can chop down the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Years have passed since the only time he had met defeat – a proposition now unrecognizable to him. He is dominant; no fighter can stand in front of him, and none could drag him to the floor. On this day, he awoke as the best heavyweight mixed martial artist in the world in the prime of his career, looking to stake a claim as the best of all-time. By midnight, he’d be in a hospital bed, bruised, battered, disfigured, and demystified. It’s December 29, 2012, the beginning of Junior dos Santos’ bumpy fall from the top of the world.

Four years earlier, he’d appeared onto the world stage unnoticed, just a third-year fighter from Brazil sent to Chicago to keep Fabricio Werdum active. Werdum was one of the UFC’s best heavyweight fighters and perhaps the one most deserving of a title shot, but he’d been passed over in favor of more popular fighters. A 5-to-1 betting favorite, he was supposed to plow through his unknown opponent. Werdum looked as though he had bought into the odds, appearing at a doughy 256-pounds. Perhaps if he had arrived in better shape, things would have gone much differently. Instead, he walked in heavy and fell hard. With a smashing uppercut, the young Brazilian gained a name, a face, and a reputation. Junior dos Santos had arrived.

He took out Stefan Struve, Mirko Cro Cop, Gilbert Yvel, and Gabriel Gonzaga in succession – three, like Werdum before them, went down in the opening round. After a 54 second knockout of Struve, the UFC realized they had a future title contender in Dos Santos, and moved him into a high profile spot against Cro Cop. After knockouts of Yvel and Gonzaga in feature fights, Dos Santos emerged as a legitimate title challenger after dominating a game Roy Nelson. Nelson, unbeaten in five UFC bouts (including his Ultimate Fighter exhibitions), acted as a human punching bag for Dos Santos.

A dominant decision victory over Shane Carwin made it seven UFC victories in a row and made Dos Santos the clear top contender in the division. He was matched with new heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez in a meeting of not only the division’s two best fighters, but the two fighters that were expected to remain on top of the division for years to come. The historic fight served as the premiere for the UFC on Fox – the pressure was on. What was supposed to be the two best fighters in the division battling for at their best for the number one spot turned out to be something different. Both came to the Honda Center injured, not wanting to pull out of the sport’s big moment. In the most-watched fight in US MMA television history, Dos Santos floored Velasquez with an overhand right and ripped the crown from his head in 64 seconds.

In May 2012, Dos Santos made his first title defense by routing Frank Mir, a replacement for Alistair Overeem, who had failed a pre-fight random drug test. The same night, Velasquez returned to form with a massacre of Antonio Silva, building demand for a rematch with the champion. What would happen when a healthy Dos Santos clashed with a healthy Velasquez?

Dos Santos walked to the cage as a 2-to-1 favorite to retain his title. The match-up did seem to favor him. Velasquez was an aggressive wrestler with a limitless gas tank, but he was hittable. Dos Santos had displayed excellent takedown defense, and his boxing and punching power had made highlights of many men. Before the fight, nearly 64% of fans in a 411 poll picked Dos Santos to win by (T)KO – a strong bid of confidence for the champion who had shown few faults in his four years with the UFC.

The fight began and Dos Santos was faced with something he hadn’t yet seen: unrelenting, unstoppable aggression. At first, he dealt with the pressure, circling away and shutting down Velasquez’s incessant takedown tries. However, he didn’t seem comfortable – he was hardly used to a constant retreating. Even as Velasquez’s plan seemed to be failing, he pushed forward. Slowly, Dos Santos began to fade. Velasquez caught him against the cage and he took a bit longer than usual to move away. Fatigue began to invade Dos Santos’ movement and defenses. Suddenly, a right hand came over the top and put Dos Santos on the ground. Nobody, not even reputed strikers, had come close to putting him down before. Velasquez swarmed, but Dos Santos survived. All he could do was survive. Velasquez’s attacked drained him, crippling his offensive output as well as his movement. Dos Santos became a target in easy range, and Velasquez took aim.

What was supposed to be the best matchup in UFC heavyweight history became one of the most one-sided. With wide scores of 50-45, 50-44, and 50-43, Velasquez took back his title. There was no easy explanation for Dos Santos’ stunningly decisive loss. He blamed overtraining. Privately, he was working through a divorce. Much more publicly, he was in the cage with Cain Velasquez, who proved he was just plain better.
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The one-sided loss jumpstarted a noticeable decline. Dos Santos returned six months later to defeat Mark Hunt, and while he finished the fight with a flashy spinning kick, he wasn’t quite the surging knockout artist that climbed the ranks to the heavyweight title. In October 2013, he completed his trilogy with Velasquez in a bout even more brutal than the first. Dos Santos, exhausted and beaten, fell late in the fifth round, completely drained from Velasquez’s punishment.

After some injuries, Dos Santos took a much needed year off before getting back in the cage against Stipe Miocic. It was a brutal affair, with the fighters exchanging power punches for five rounds. Dos Santos edged out a close decision, but he had slowed and it was the third time in four fights he’d absorbed tremendous, sustained punishment.

He took off another year before getting back to business against Alistair Overeem, the man he was supposed to meet at the peak of his powers. His powers now dulled, a tentative Dos Santos, just 31-years-old, did little to bring a satisfying conclusion to his years-long rivalry with Overeem. The former champion didn’t take prolonged damage, but rather a sudden, devastating left hook that sent him crashing to the mat.

Years ago, his opponents fell the same way.

Dan Plunkett has covered MMA for 411Mania since 2008. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @Dan_Plunkett.