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Dos Santos delivers heavyweight knockout of Cain

Junior Dos Santos is the new UFC heavyweight champion © Getty Images

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Junior Dos Santos marked the most historic night in the history of the UFC with a quite breathtaking knockout to wrench the heavyweight title away from Cain Velasquez.

In a battle of arguably the two most highly-skilled heavyweights to ever enter the Octagon, Dos Santos needed only 64 seconds to leave the champion in a heap, protected only by referee John McCarthy. Utilising his quite phenomenal boxing skills, the Brazilian floored Velasquez with a thudding overhand right, before swarming all over him with a series of left hands to turn out the lights.

If Velasquez's destruction of Brock Lesnar a year ago had been an eye-opener, Dos Santos' clinic in technical striking was a sit-up-and-take-notice performance of even greater magnitude.

On the night that the UFC made its Fox debut, president Dana White claimed he would not have picked any other fight to lead the promotion into a new era. The champion Velasquez had never lost, while the challenger Dos Santos was unbeaten in seven UFC bouts. Something had to give.

All the pre-fight talk had been about the clash of styles. Velasquez was an overwhelming favourite due to his awesome wrestling capabilities, but would he get chance to take Dos Santos down before the Brazilian landed one of his vast array of battleship-sinkers?

A look into Velasquez's UFC history may have provided the clue to how the fight would unravel: His only previous meeting with an elite striker had seen him dropped three times by Cheick Kongo - albeit on his way to an eventual victory.

Dos Santos is at least a level above Kongo though, and within seconds of the opening bell it was obvious how the fight would end. Velasquez's defence was poor, he ate a straight right in the first exchange, a left hook in the second, and then narrowly escaped an uppercut in the third.

The finish was inevitable, but that did not lessen the spectacular nature of Dos Santos' triumph. An overhand right landed perfectly to the temple, Velasquez fell face first but still needed finishing off, a job Dos Santos duly obliged in doing for a quite awesome victory.

"I have no words to say, my life is amazing. Cain Velasquez was my toughest opponent, I was afraid to fight him because he's tough. I was scared," admitted the new heavyweight champion.

Rest assured, after this display, there will be several other contenders feeling 'scared' about the future prospect of meeting "Cigano".

Ben Henderson will provide the next challenge to Frankie Edgar's lightweight title after he emerged victorious from a compelling Fight of the Year contender against Clay Guida. After three high-velocity rounds that saw multiple attempts to end the contest, Henderson walked away with a 29-28 30-27 30-27 decision.

It looked like being a quick night for the former WEC champion when he dropped Guida early with a big right later followed by an equally accurate left. However, by the end of the first round it was Henderson who was rocked after Guida landed his own left hook.

The pair exchanged flying knees, spinning back fists - on one occasion even launching into flying knees simultaneously. Henderson threatened a rear naked choke when taking Guida's back and Guida looked for multiple guillotines, but ultimately Henderson always looked superior in the grappling department and deserved the unanimous decision.

He now faces Edgar in a bout expected to take place in Japan on February 26. "Frankie Edgar, we got a date, let's do it baby," roared Henderson before leaving the Octagon victorious.

UFC on Fox results:
Junior Dos Santos bt Cain Velasquez via KO, Round 1
Ben Henderson bt Clay Guida via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Dustin Poirier bt Pablo Garza via D'arce choke, Round 2
Aaron Rosa bt Matt Lucas via majority decision (30-26, 28-28, 30-26)
Mike Pierce bt Paul Bradley via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
Alex Caceres bt Cole Escovedo via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Robert Peralta bt Mackens Semerzier via TKO, Round 3
Darren Uyenoyama bt Kid Yamamoto via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-27)
DaMarques Johnson bt Clay Harvison via TKO, Round 1
Ricardo Lamas bt Cub Swanson via arm triangle choke, Round 2

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