It comes but once a year fight fans. It’s international fight week, and once again the UFC are pulling out all the stops with three events in three consecutive days. At the end of the week, and comes the culmination of the events in UFC 200, which plays host to a selection of phenomenal contests. Here, we look at Cain Velasquez vs. Travis Browne.
On a night of blistering match-ups, it’s perhaps fair to say that this is the ‘odd one out’ when it comes to fights on the card. For a start, Velasquez is the only man coming on the main card to be coming into UFC 200 on a defeat. And it’s that loss that is really the story of this fight.
Last seen losing the UFC heavyweight championship, Cain’s future has become something of a conversation point of late. Was the loss to Werdum really just a question of poor preparation and higher altitude, or was it indicative of something more… long term.
Velasquez’s battle with injuries over the course of his career has been well documented. Surgeries on his shoulder, his knee and his back has meant that since first winning the title from Brock Lesnar in 2010, Cain has fought just six times.
And now, after losing to Werdum and having to cancel a rematch due to his most recent surgery, the conversation has begun on whether we’ve already seen the end of the best Velasquez. At some point, repeated injuries will pile up to the point where they can no longer be overcome, and your performance wavers permanently.
Part of what made Velasquez so successful was the blistering pace and mean spirited grinding output he could enforce on opponents until they could no longer keep up. With a body that seems to be more sewn together than worn and torn, it’s yet to be seen whether the Cain of old can return.
It’s still a scalp more than worthy of collection.
Facing Velasquez is number seven ranked Travis Browne.
Browne is a solid, range-y and explosive fighter with excellent striking ability. His last performance against Matt Mitrione, while marred by particularly nasty eye pokes, was solid and a win over the former champion Velasquez would still propel Browne to the upper tier of the division.
“Cain ran the division for years,” Browne said at a media lunch earlier this year. “He’s arguably still the best heavyweight. There’s situations that came up in his last fight, altitude and stuff like that. He had to learn the hard way. But I feel like he’s right there. He’s still the toughest guy. So it means everything to me. To me, this is almost my title shot.
“I have to go out there and perform and make it a show. Perform and come out on top. There’s so many moving parts to it.”
Regardless of ‘which’ Velasquez shows up, the bout still has promise due to an interesting mix of styles. Cain of course comes forward, preferring to grind his opponents down against the fence with a mixture of dirty boxing and knees in the clinch.
Against Browne though, Velasquez actually meets an opponent who has shown a prowess to hurting foes that attempt to force his back to the cage. He knocked out both Josh Barnett and Gabriel Gonzaga in similar fashion, elbowing the man attempting a takedown.
At present the odds have Cain Velasquez vs. Travis Browne at -290 to +240, but should there be an upset, expect this to be the fight it occurs in.
