Junior dos Santos vs. Gabriel Gonzaga Likely for UFC 108 in January (updated)
Heavyweights Junior dos Santos and Gabriel Gonzaga are likely to fight at UFC 108 on January 2 in Las Vegas, according to reports published Monday, which confirmed rumors that first surfaced over the weekend.
Dos Santos (9-1) opened his UFC career with back-to-back first-round knockouts of Fabricio Werdum and Stefan Struve, before forcing Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic to submit to punches in the third-round of their September bout.
Gonzaga (11-4), previously rumored to be fighting Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 107, bounced back from a March loss to Shane Carwin with a first-round knockout of newcomer Chris Tuchscherer in August to improve to 3-1 in his last four fights.
UFC 108, which will air live on pay-per-view from the MGM Grand Garden Arena, is expected to feature middleweight champ Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort and Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva.
For the latest UFC news and UFC rumors stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Pictured: Junior dos Santos
Tags: Gabriel Gonzaga, Junior dos Santos
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Gonna be a big card, (literally, four heavyweight bouts). I think dos Santos will win this, Gonzaga hasn’t shown a lot of durability, and dos Santos has power. However, I also think we might get to see dos Santos’ ground game in this fight, because Gonzaga will definitely be looking to get this fight to the ground.
i agree justin harris my freind
This card is looking pretty sweet!
Despite his losses to werdum and carwin after the randy fight, gonzaga has kep himself around the “top” of the division. He needs to seize his opportunities though and not always lose “the big fight”. This is a great shot for him to really get back in the top of the heavyweights and make another run at the title.
The dos santos vs cro cop fight reminded me of the shogun vs coleman fight. Dos santos should have finished cro cop in the first round dude.
Great matchup for both but i’m giving the fight to gonzaga. bjj black belt with some sick power and kickboxing. He’s better conditioned than dos santos and will last longer. He’s always fought “better” competiton and i don’t there’s nothing imo dos santos can bring to the fight that gnzaga hasn’t seen yet.
Gonzaga by tko rnd 2
yeah dude this card is gona be sick, if Gonzaga can win and win big he’ll get himself back in the mix and possibly fight another contender. After watching Dos Santos gas out against Cro-cop i think that Gonzaga has the advantage in not only experience but overall, Dos Santos has a punchers chance but i’m guessing that after losing to Carwin Gonzaga knows not be more carefull in the exgages.
Gonzaga via t(ko)
Hell ya this card is stacked with HW!!!! lots of KO’s
Still hoping this card gets Hendo vs Nate
Looks like 106-109 are gonna be pretty stacked cards if all the rumours are true hopefully GSP is on 109 with Henderson/Marquardt
There goes the Nog vs Gonzaga rumor.
This should be a good fight, but if Dos Santos and Velasquez wins there fights.
Who gets first crack it the title?
Dos- will be (4-0) with 3 big names
Velasquez- will be (5-0) with 2 big names
^^ maybe they fight for a sweet #1 contender matchup while Nog fights Lesnar.
this to me will be the biggest test for dos santos(no pun intended)
Gonzaga will be the most complete big name he has fought and will provide a true test of where he is…
Werdum was a “bigger” test for him imo, the reason being is that it was dos Santos’ UFC debut, when Werdum was close to title contention (and I pick that upset {sorry just wanted to feel special like Marvel saying he picked all these “fights”}) fighting GG will be a nice “test” for dos Santos but I believe that the biggest fight he has had so far was his debut against Werdum
I would agree with that, I actually had it between him and Werdum. The only reason I went with this one is that I still believe werdum half-a$$ed in training because he thought he was below him. I think Gonzaga is going to come in ready for war.
Couple of thoughts here:
- first, tha BigNog/Gonzaga thing was fu<ktarded in the extreme from the get-go.
BigNog is a big name, and should get the winner of Lesnar-Carwin having defeated Couture, the previous champion. Whoever thought it was a good idea for the MMA legend who beat the Natural to face the man who beat Chris "Who?" Tuchscherer deserves a public co<k-slapping in the Octagon.
- second, the UFC probably can't stack 107 enough to excuse the absence of hometown boy Rampage Jackson, but they are He11a trying.
Personally I'm fine with the card, and will of course as always be opting in, but I can see where people in the area who bought in hoping to see their boy step in against Rashad will remain inconsolable.
- third, like some of my boys posted above, Dos Santos has a solid puncher's chace, and deserves to win this fight if GG is stupid enough to stand and trade with him.
Personally, I'm thinking he's better coached and trained than that, so I see him winning by submission in rounds 2 or 3.
- finally, Justin H?!
WTF?
Is that mod squad Justin rocking a new label, or another Justin with the same cool avatar?
And what does the "H" stand for, He11 yeah I'm modding trolls into non-existence?
“Mod squad Justin” since occasionally other “Justin”s show up, I wanted to make sure people knew who I was, outside of just the avatar. And H is for my last name.
Thanks for the 4-1-1, Justin H!
Cheers.
^^ good show
i dont really think nog deserves a title shot just because he barely beat randy… id like to see another win under his belt first
I want Gabe to win. The dude is all class and a cool person. I met him at 102 but anyway, I think Gonzaga will sub Dos Santos his BJJ is underrated IMO.
I well agree with you Gonzaga’s ground is under rated but I think Big Nog well have Dos Santos ready for anything Gonzaga can throw at him on the ground, plus we haven’t seen Dos Santos ground game or his takedown defence in a while. So maybe we could be under rating him there
Gonzaga the gate keeper!!!!!
That’s interesting paino. I don’nt know if gonzaga’s the “gatekeeper”. The guy’s been given some decent fighters and opportunities, he just hasn’t been able to get that “big win” again like he did against cro cop to continue his climb back up.
Im going for Junior dos Santos 2nd tko on this one
hopefully his cardio is better
but saying that Gonzaga has a way better ground game
This card is looking sooo good
This is an interesting matchup. And it is also much better than the Nog-Gonzaga fight. Its hard to pick a winner in this one. Everyone knows Gonzaga has KO power, but after the Carwin fight, people are questioning his chin. (which is stupid IMO, seeing how Carwin arguably has more KO power than anyone in the UFC HW division) I would give Gonzaga the advantage on the ground. However, people shouldnt doubt Dos Santos’ ground game. He does train with the Nogueira bros…
My prediction at this point? Eh…Gonzaga via tko 2nd.
Gonzaga has been TKOed before the Carwin fight. Twice by Werdum, and once by Randy Couture, so it’s not just the Carwin fight why people are questioning his chin.
Dos Santos’ ground game should be good, because like you said, he does train with the Nogueira brothers, but he is only a purple belt, and Gonzaga is a black belt. Plus Gonzaga has twenty pounds on him.
It wasnt his chin that cost him the fight against Couture or Werdum it was his takedown defence and useless guard.
Not sure what his deal was with Werdum, but against Couture GG almost seemed in awe of his opponent, and subsequently got shut down in the 3rd…
i think gonzaga has this one imo idk why it just seems like he has the edge good bjj good boxing good wrestling and hes very dedicated