Paddy Power's UFC 160 Preview

Velasquez v Bigfoot – New Account Exclusive – Get Velasquez to win in the first round!

Since Mark Coleman beat Dan Severn to become the first UFC heavyweight champion back in February 1997, the marquee division of the organisation has yet to find a dominant champion. No fighter has managed to defend the belt more than twice, a record currently shared by Randy Couture, Brock Lesnar and Tim Sylvia. The belt has changed hands 17 times, and that’s not including the occasions where the UFC needed to create ‘interim’ champions.

On Saturday night Cain Velasquez gets his second shot at breaking this undesirable trend. The Californian fighter beat Brock Lesnar to win the belt only to lose it to Junior dos Santos in his very next fight. Velasquez reportedly went in to the JDS fight with serious shoulder and knee injuries and did appear to look slightly out of shape at the weigh-in for the November 2011 fight. Cain returned to action with a first round knock-out win over Antonio Silva, his opponent on Saturday night. He then redeemed himself with a convincing points win over Junior dos Santos to regain the belt in a one-sided rematch last Christmas.

Now he faces Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva for a second time in three fights looking to make his first defence of the belt.

Silva comes in to this fight on the back of two impressive knock-out wins over the previously unbeaten Travis Browne and the highly-rated Alistair Overeem. Although Overeem tired badly after the first round, Silva’s confidence will still be high after such a decisive and impressive stoppage.

However there’s simply no ignoring the first fight between these two. The 1/8 price on Valesquez to win is a reflection of that. In fact the champion is just 4/11 to win by knock-out and going on their first meeting it’s hard to argue against it, although Bigfoot insists his poor showing last May was due to suffering a terrible cut above the eyes very early in the fight.

Velasquez is too fast for Silva. His ability to get in and out, landing a high-volume of heavy punches,  should prove too much for the tough but often ponderous challenger. The champion holds an advantage on the feet and possesses greater wrestling ability should the two clinch. As long as he can avoid Silva’s heavy hands he should control this fight and another first round stoppage is very much on the cards.

In fact Paddy Power are offering an enhanced price of 5/1 for Cain Velasquez to win in the first round. Normally priced at 13/8 this limited offer gives you a great opportunity to make a tidy profit on what many believe is a foregone conclusion.

A word of warning though. This is a heavyweight title fight and as long as Silva is swinging he possesses the power to stop any heavyweight in the world. His power not only accounted for Browne and Overeem but, in 2011, resulted in one of the upsets of the year when he hammered the supposed best heavyweight of all time, Fedor Emelianenko, to a bloody second round defeat.   If you fancy the upset then Silva can be backed at 6/1 to win by knock-out.