Dos Santos Out

Junior Dos Santos broke his hand and will be removing himself from TUF Brazil 3 main event. Leaving Stipe Miocic without a top ten opponent. A sad turn of events since this was a match up that made sense.

Former UFC heavyweight champ, Junior Dos Santos has found himself to be the second best competitor in his division. In a rushed rubber match, Dos Santos lost to the current champion Cain Velasquez in a second one sided beating. A fourth bout won't happen anytime soon, so Dos Santos sits high above the rest of his competitors without a belt to wear.

Miocic was an undefeated fighter, with a growing hype train behind him. This train though came crashing to a halt when he lost by submission to Stefan Struve. He's rebounded nicely from that loss, beating up Roy Nelson for a unanimous decision victory. On the precipice of being considered a contender, Miocic needs a big win over a top ten opponent to push him over. His hope is that he won't falter like he did against Struve.

What better opponent than Dos Santos, the number two of the division. If he couldn't topple Velasquez for a second time, why not continue his legacy by trying to beat the other best heavyweights. Roberto Duran lost two out of three fights to Sugar Ray Leonard, but he is still considered one of the greatest of all time. 

Unfortunately, this fight may never happen. Miocic is still available though and the UFC needs a main event for their TUF finale. Since the event takes place at the end of the month, Dos Santos' hand is very bad timing. Fabio Maldonado has moved up a division from light heavyweight, to replace him on late notice.

Maldonado has been the go to for injury replacements. A basic unknown he stepped in on late notice to face Glover Teixeira. It didn't go well.

Since he's fighting a heavyweight fighter I predict the night will be even worse for him. There isn't much to be earned from being a company man that get's his bell rung every time he's called up.

Now a weak main event, I hope the UFC did all they could to get someone better in there. Alistair Overeem would have been my first choice. Trying to preserve his career though, I'd doubt he'd take a fight on only a few weeks notice. 

Maybe Andre Arlovski? He's recently signed back with the UFC, maybe he'd take a fight on short notice to get in good graces with the company. If he turned it down, this is a stretch, but what about another return to heavyweight for Dan Henderson. It would have absolutely saved the main event. He's scheduled to fight a week before the card anyway against a former heavyweight. Have him avoid the weight cut, I'd much rather see him move up a division than Maldonado. 

If all these athletes said no I would have at least went with Saol Palelei. By no means saving the main event, it would have however made more sense. Palelei is fighting this weekend against a nobody. Scratch that match, and you have a fighter who is trained and ready for TUF Brazil 3 card. Now on a two fight win streak in the UFC after a brutal KO of Pat Barry, it would have been a much more interesting fight.

When Dos Santos returns I'd like to see his fight with Overeem finally happen. This main event may be a bust, but at least the UFC can create a better one in the future by matching these two up.