Clark Kent
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10-24-2009 11:54 PM:The crowd booed because they thought referee Steve Mazzagatti stopped it early but it was a merciful ending for Ben Rothwell, who was tossed pillar-to-pillar for nearly six minutes. Velasquez slammed Rothwell throughout the first round and turned it up notch in the first minute of the second. In the first minute of the second stanza, Velasquez pinned Rothwell against the cage. When the big guy tried to stand Velasquez nailed him with five unanswered lefts that's when Mazzagatti jumped in at 0:58 of the second round.
Velasquez is only 7-0 but he's manhandled everyone he's faced. He may be the one heavyweight in the world who can hold his own wrestling with UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.
Velasquez's stand-up defense looked much better against Rothwell, who actually showed some fast hands early in the fight. Rothwell ran into problems when he got stationary. That's when Velasquez tossed him on his head every chance he had. With a ton of Mexican fans rooting him on at Staples Center, Velasquez did most of his damage from side control but also used hip control to pound away and scored a mount at the end of the first. When Rothwell tried to walk to the corner at the end of the first, he could barely stand and it looked as if his equilibirum was off.
Velasquez was originally scheduled to fight Shane Carwin on this card. Carwin was moved off the card to set up a title fight against Lesnar at UFC 106 on Nov. 21 in Las Vegas. Velasquez may not want to take 6-8 months off before his shot at the title, so he may get one more test to pass before stepping in with the UFC's heavyweight champ.
Cagewriter hosts the only UFC 104 postfight show from Staples Center starting at 1:30 a.m. ET. Listen here.
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Yahoo! Sports.
Cagewriter is an MMA blog edited by Steve Cofield.
Velasquez is only 7-0 but he's manhandled everyone he's faced. He may be the one heavyweight in the world who can hold his own wrestling with UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.
Velasquez's stand-up defense looked much better against Rothwell, who actually showed some fast hands early in the fight. Rothwell ran into problems when he got stationary. That's when Velasquez tossed him on his head every chance he had. With a ton of Mexican fans rooting him on at Staples Center, Velasquez did most of his damage from side control but also used hip control to pound away and scored a mount at the end of the first. When Rothwell tried to walk to the corner at the end of the first, he could barely stand and it looked as if his equilibirum was off.
Velasquez was originally scheduled to fight Shane Carwin on this card. Carwin was moved off the card to set up a title fight against Lesnar at UFC 106 on Nov. 21 in Las Vegas. Velasquez may not want to take 6-8 months off before his shot at the title, so he may get one more test to pass before stepping in with the UFC's heavyweight champ.
Cagewriter hosts the only UFC 104 postfight show from Staples Center starting at 1:30 a.m. ET. Listen here.
More...
Yahoo! Sports.
Cagewriter is an MMA blog edited by Steve Cofield.
