UFC 121 preview: Cain Velasquez looks to do an Abel on Brock Lesnar

They’re not brothers. One is a Mexican American banger who has decent wrestling and grappling skills, has a granite jaw, is definitely smaller but is as tough as any Aztec warrior there ever was.

The other is a huge white boy who once did some acting in professional wrestling, has a head full of bricks, has more muscle on him than most overweight people have fat, and is as tough as any WWE product who ventured into MMA. Er, scratch the last one.

Cain Velasquez is the underdog in his match with Brock Lesnar in most fight fans’ eyes. Coming in at 6-feet-1 and 244 pounds to Lesnar’s 6-3 and 264 pounds, Velasquez weighs now what Lesnar did in college minus five meals in a week.

The size disparity alone makes Lesnar the prohibitive favorite. Considering that Lesnar earned all his past victories by submission through strikes and technical knockouts and possessing such amazing speed for a large man, Velasquez is already counted out as just another victim.

Lesnar will naturally want to take the fight to the ground and pound Velasquez senseless unless he taps out verbally or with a hand slamming the mat. But with a strong college wrestling background just like Lesnar, Velasquez (who also has a purple belt in Brazilian Jiujitsu) can fight on the ground. Lesnar may have heavier hands but Velasquez has more refined boxing skills.

Don’t expect either of them to use too much kicking. It will be feet planted on the ground and letting go of haymakers. Should Lesnar be on the receiving end of fisticuffs, he will use his superior speed and strength to take down Velasquez and try to pound him with those sledgehammer fists of his, or even surprise us again with a submission hold just like he did on Shane Carwin.

Lesnar said that he doesn’t expect Velasquez to give him much trouble, pointing out that smaller fighters like Randy Couture and Min-Soo Kim did not pose much of a threat to him before. The trouble is neither Couture nor Kim was as good, strong and young as Velasquez is at present. Both opponents were past their prime when they lost to Lesnar.

At 28 and on a hot eight-match win streak (seven by KO), Velasquez is as dangerous a challenger as Carwin was in the first round against Lesnar in UFC 116.

The non-garrulous Velasquez (in contrast to the brash and voluble Lesnar) is determined to take away Lesnar’s title. With the resolute look of a killer, wearing those Dethrone shirts and caps should help fortify Velasquez’s goal: Destroy Brock!