Dana says JDS will not fight Cain, both will stay in line

http://www.mmamania.com/2010/3/24/1388989/dana-white-junior-dos-santos-can
"Dos Santos got himself in the mix the other day. If you question whether he should be or not, he showed you the other night that he should be. The great thing is, a guy asked me out there, 'Are you going to do Cain Velasquez against dos Santos now?' The way I see it is, and the way my luck has gone lately, with injuries and stuff, I think you keep these guys in line. You've got Mir and Carwin fighting, whoever comes out, if the winner doesn't have any cuts or break his hand or anything like that, he goes right out and fights Brock Lesnar this summer. Then you've got Cain Velasquez waiting in the wings for the next fight. Then you've got dos Santos ready for the next one. I like having those guys in line and we'll have a lot of good fights -- title fights that people actually care about. (Dos Santos) can fight again. It's not like we're going to put him on the bench and say, 'Oh, we'll hold you here.' But you don't have him fight Cain Velasquez. If he loses along the way to somebody else, he definitely wasn't ready for Lesnar or whoever the champion is."

I was going to add this to the "JDS needa a contender" thread but I figure we can use this to talk about the HW divison and not just JDS.
I'm glad Dana is doing this, I like both guys being in line ready to go. With all the injures lately it seems like a good idea.

I think dana is playing his cards right on this one. jds vs kongo just for kicks

Maybe he can fight Roy Nelson.

Smart move. I still say JDS gets the loser of Mir-Carwin.

Farmer1906 wrote:

Smart move. I still say JDS gets the loser of Mir-Carwin.

I have a feeling that the loser of Mir-Carwin will be pretty banged up. Also I wouldn't mind feeding him Kongo or Nelson just to keep him warm. Less risky then giving him Mir-Carwin loser.

freakzilla316ftw wrote:

Maybe he can fight Roy Nelson.

I'm sure Dana would love to feed Roy to JDS, it would be like x-mas for him

Ehh i would much rather see JDS vs Cain. These are the top 2 contenders and they should fight eachother to see who gets the next shot.

oggy420 wrote:

Ehh i would much rather see JDS vs Cain. These are the top 2 contenders and they should fight eachother to see who gets the next shot.

Well you can understand why Dana is doing this will all these injuries lately. Better safe then sorry. I think more then likely the Mir-Carwin winner won't be scratch free and Cain will get the next shot anyways. Then you could either give JDS the winner of that fight(Carin-Mir after they are healed) or keep JDS around incase another injury happens. I think this is the smart move. JDS is only 26 and Cain is around the same age....they will fight someday.

well what if the winner of Mir Carwin comes out of the fight perfectly healthy? You cant put off a fight that everyone wants to see just at the slim chance that Mir or Brock may get injured in training. I thought the UFC always has the best fight the best. I want to see JDS tested by a top contender and Cain is the only one right now who doesn't have a fight scheduled. I guess i can live with it but i certainly hope this doesn't become a common thing, especially in the other weight classes.

oggy420 wrote:

well what if the winner of Mir Carwin comes out of the fight perfectly healthy? You cant put off a fight that everyone wants to see just at the slim chance that Mir or Brock may get injured in training. I thought the UFC always has the best fight the best. I want to see JDS tested by a top contender and Cain is the only one right now who doesn't have a fight scheduled. I guess i can live with it but i certainly hope this doesn't become a common thing, especially in the other weight classes.

Ok lets assume that Carwin-Mir winner is healthy and able to take a fight with Lesnar. Then you are still not out in the clear, we have seen way too many injuries leading up to fights. So what if Lesnar or Mir-Carwin get hurt comming into that fight? If Cain vs JDS is already locked in then who do you have on deck to fight for the title? IMO you should keep atleast 1 of them inactive until someone is able to fight Lesnar. I think this is the smartest way to go.

Why not have JDS fight the winner of Nelson vs Struve? I think that makes sense, though I would rather watch him fight the loser of Mir/Carwin, but I understand Dana's apprehension.

JDS already beat the shit out of struve and Nelson would get destroyed by him imo. If you're gonna give him someone other than Cain it should be the loser of Mir vs Carwin preferablly.

oggy420 wrote:

JDS already beat the shit out of struve and Nelson would get destroyed by him imo. If you're gonna give him someone other than Cain it should be the loser of Mir vs Carwin preferablly.

I disagree, I think you just keep him warm. That is why Kongo or Nelson if he wins would be good IMO. Either keep him on the bench incase you need to call on him because of injury or keep him warm a favorable matchup.

Kongo or Nelson if he wins are the only two real options.

It's obvious that Dana knows what a guy like Cain Valesquez would do to a fighter with JDS skills. The UFC unearthed Crocop's remains, and then signed Yvel, to keep JDS fighting favorable match ups. Once JDS has fought and lost for the title, then he can be used in fights against wrestlers. Until then he needs to be kept safe.

Kongo is mildy dangerous but not good enough a wrestler I think to avoid the KO that is no doubt coming. JDS might have K1 level skills, Kongo isn't even close, so while Kongo always has a punchers chance, he will be decapitated early by JDS if it stays standing.

Nelson is much more dangerous than Kongo, because while he isn't as technical standing, he is a fairly good boxer with one punch KO power in both hands, but he has a much better takedown game and submission game than Kongo(or anyone) JDS has ever fought.

The closest fighters skillset wise to Nelson are Mir and Gonzaga. JDS did just massacred Gonzaga though, so even against a guy as good as Nelson, I'd still take JDS as the favorite.

The danger in watching and betting on fighters like Jose Aldo and JDS, fast hands and brutal KOs, is that the flashy fast KO's could mask a Vitor Belfort type situation. Sometimes there is more to a fight than two minutes of striking, and how these fighters react to those situations is still unknown.

I think it's safe to say Jose Aldo is as legit as they come these days, especially if he beats Faber in any kind of fashion. JDS remains untested on the ground. I don't care what anyone says, the half a second he was on the ground while Gonzaga slipped and was unable to hold onto a bucking athlete tells me nothing about how he handles having someone laying on top of him trying to smash his face into the recesses of his skull.

While I am not in the habit of making injury excuses, Thiago Alves landed a massive knee on Brown in training that from what I hear out of ATT totally derailed his preparation for the fight one week before they met. Brown didn't look like himself either.

I've always been high on Aldo, going back to his early WEC fights, and if he beats Faber I am on board totally, but it should be noted he has one top 25 win in the weight class, one top 10 win, and one top 5 win, and they are all over the same Mike Brown.

This is a good move for sure. I also think Dana will keep JDS away from Nelson because Nelson has good wrestling and BJJ. JDS will be fighting someone like Kongo as people have pointed out here. They are protecting him and doing a nice job of it. Although, if Nelson were to win against JDS then they have another contendor on their hands. It could work out either way. I don't see it happening, though. Dana doesn't want to give Nelson the chance and he doesn't want to risk losing one of his brightest young stars.

Bigs has a good point about Nelson. It depends on if Dana thinks Nelson is good enough to beat JDS, which I don't know if he does. He might try to send Nelson to the slaughter.