Over the weekend, the heavyweight showdown between Cain Velesquez (3-0) and jake O’Brien (10-1) was made official for Ultimate Fight Night 14 at The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 19.
It’s a match up that pairs two young and decorated former collegiate wrestlers — Velasquez was an All-American at Arizona State University and O’Brien racked up a solid career while on the Purdue University squad for two years.
Velasquez lived up to the lofty expectations in his Octagon debut, overwhelming Brad Morris at UFC 83: “Serra vs. St. Pierre 2″ en route to a first round technical knockout. The American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) stand out is regarded as a raw blue chip prospect who has adapted well to mixed martial arts and could one day challenge for a division title.
O’Brien was actually among several fighters cut from their contracts when the promotion was out to trim its roster. In hindsight, it was perhaps to soon because O’Brien had just one loss in four attempts inside the Octagon. And that was a defeat to former heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski at UFC 82: “Pride of a Champion” back in March.
He holds notable wins over Heath Herring, Josh Shockman and Kristof Midoux while under contract with promotion.
This could be a tough fight for O’Brien who has traditionally relied on his athleticism and strong wrestling skills to defeat his opponents. That’s because Velasquez more than likely is the better wrestler and is just as — if not more than — athletic in this pairing.
UFC Fight Night 14 features the light heavyweight debut of UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva against James Irvin in the main event of the Spike TV special presentation. To check out the most recent fight card click here.
21 Comments »
For those who didn’t see this before:
this is for all you guys that are going to bitch when mania posts fighter salaries this week. There is no gun to any of these guys heads when they sign their contract. I’m sure most of you have eaten at mcdonalds or shopped at wal mart right? do you bitch for those poor slobs making minimum wage? Fact is, these professional athletes train for free and most get paid to train. As long as they are training, they lure guys like us into the gym. Second, their sponser money is not factored into their salaries. Do you notice that the only two guys openly complaining are two of the highest paid guys.
If someone came up to me and said “we will train you at greg jacksons camp for nothing, the UFC will sign you to a 15k/15k show/win contract for 3 fights and you’ll get one sponser,” I’d say where do I sign!! Then you win a fight and mmamania.com offers you 10k to show their website, and condom depot gives another 10k for your shorts. Then I win 2 more fights. The year is up, I’ve made 150-200k, doing something I love. Now I’m riding a 3 fight win streak and I’m offered 50/50 or maybe more. & years later I’m dating a old, ugly porn star with a vagina the size of a watermelon and bitching about money…NOPE, I’m the luckiest guy in the world, getting paid to train and making a great living doing something that comes natural to all of us!! Kicking ass!
So next time you guys want to complain about the guy who saved the sport, just remember it’s a business, and you have no clue what he does behind the scenes. I remember when Matt Hughes beat Royce, his base pay was like 75k…but Dana gave him a million dollar bonus after the fight in the locker room. Instead of complaining about guys making hundreds of thousands of dollars, complain about the companies whose employees aren’t even making 25k and we’re supporting because they are on welfare!
Great post! i totally agree.
Awesome, you one my respect back after the machida posts.
Perfectally stated.
Great post! Btw what the minimum wage ur side of the pond are’s is 5:52 which works out as $10 an hour
Hey adam and bnf, if my connection doesn’t come through with cage side, you guys wanna split the cost on a suite?? IMO, this is a stacked card for free tv and coming from elite!
Robbie Lawler vs Scott Smith
Nick Diaz vs KJ Noons
Jake Shields vs TBA (Nick Thompson/Paul Daley)
Antonio Silva vs TBA (Roy Nelson/Buzz Berry)
Shayna Baszler vs TBA (Kelly Kobald)
Wilsion Reis vs TBA (Mark Oshiro/Bao Quach)
I think this fight will be extremely boring. Jake O’Brien’s cut did not last long. This is the most boring fighter in the history of MMA.
im going to agree
I wonder how many times Joe Rogan is going to say “O’brien got him pressed up into the cage. Now he’s got a body lock, now Cain reverses and presses him into the cage and now he has a body lock. This is turning into a war of attrition!” LMAO!!!!!!!!! Snoooooozing.
O’Brien is boring (to say the least), but Cain could make a fight out of it.
Look if you want to defeat Jake O’Brien this is what you have to do.
Stop the Takedown.
If you cant, then learn how to sweep from the bottom or learn submissions.
Thats it. You take him down, or you make him stand up. That is single handedly the best way to beat him. Jake O’Brien will take you down, and hold you without doing any damage. He looks like CB in the 3rd round in all honesty. Boring as shit.
two great wrestlers but o brien has the better boxing! hopefully it will be a good fight
this fight doesn’t do anything but take up space on this card!
THere is nothing worse in mma than wrestler vs. WRestler
Please tell me Jake “The Blanket” will not be on the televised portion this card. If I see 1 more of his fights I will demand the UFC pays my medical bills after I rip my eyes out.
Hey bnf, you wanna get a suite if elite goes to stockton? the card is stacked! This is if I can’t get great seats, maybe adam too, we could split costs!
mania you shouldn’t rush to post things, have a good read before posting haha “won loss in four attempts”??? surely you mean one. sorry just bustin your balls mania, its gotta be done.
http://cgi.ebay.com/UFC-85-Fabricio-Werdum-fight-shorts-shirt-AUTOGRAPHED_W0QQitemZ260253431093QQihZ016QQcategoryZ52QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
this card will be better that that boring tim/fedor fight
I don’t care for either Tim (doesn’t back up his claims of being a dominant HW KO artist enough) or Fedor (spent last three years ducking all legitimate opponents) but I seriously doubt this will be a boring fight.
i thought the UFC let Jake go after Arlovski beat him.